Marengo County and other Alabama residents will head to the polls on Tuesday, August 15, for a primary election to choose between candidates of each party running for the U.S. Senate seat that was vacated when Jeff Sessions accepted the position as U.S. Attorney General.

The primary will be different from previous years as new state law passed during the 2017 legislative session prohibits cross-over voting. Voters will have to select for which party they want to vote. Voters will not receive ballots for both parties. If there is a run-off, voters may still only vote on ballots that they chose in the primary, information that will be saved in election records. The new law does not affect voting for candidates and parties in the general election.

Polls will be open on August 15 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. According to the Marengo County Probate Office, changes in polling locations include: District 4, where the McKinley/Taylor site is closed with voters there being relocated to Thomaston; District 5, the Aimwell site is closed with voters reporting to Sweet Water, and the Nanafalia site has been relocated to the Nanafalia Mini Mall on Hwy. 10.

Election officials will also be using electronic poll books in some locations.

“I’m very excited that we will have electronic poll books at some of our voting locations,” said Marengo County Probate Judge Laurie Shoultz Hall. “The county commission approved my request and have purchased machines to cover at least one site per district. These machines make signing in to vote easier, quicker and more efficient. We hope to have these in more sites in the future as funding becomes available.”

The poll books will be located at the following locations: District 1: Demopolis Civic Center; District 2, Church Aflame; District 3, Linden Armory/Business Center; District 4, Thomaston; and District 5, Sweet Water.

There will be a demonstration on how the poll books work at the county courthouse on Wednesday, August 9, at 2 p.m. A demonstration will also be posted to Facebook, Hall said.

Candidates for the U.S. Senate seat include nine Republicans and seven Democrats.

Those choosing the Republican ballot will decide between: Luther Strange, who was appointed to fill the vacated seat by then-governor Robert Bentley, Mo Brooks, Roy Moore, James Beretta, Joseph Breault, Randy Brinson, Mary Maxwell, Bryan Peeples, and Trip Pittman.

The Democrat ballot will have: Will Boyd, Vann Caldwell, Jason Fisher, Michael Hansen, Doug Jones, Robert Kennedy Jr., and Nana Tchienkou.

(This article originally appeared in the Wednesday, August 2, print edition of the Demopolis Times.)