Final Alabama vote tallies

[quaoar]

Amendment 2:
2,577 of 2,577 precincts - 100 percent
Yes, 688,939 - 50 percent
No, 690,999 - 50 percent

President
2,577 of 2,577 precincts - 100 percent
George W. Bush, GOP (i) 1,176,007 - 63 percent
John F. Kerry, Dem 693,124 - 37 percent
Ralph Nader, Ind 6,712 - 0 percent
Michael Badnarik, Ind 3,572 - 0 percent
Michael Peroutka, Ind 1,992 - 0 percent

[Owlet]

1. What was Amendment 2? (NT)

[quaoar]

4. Amendment 2

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to repeal portions of Section 256 and Amendment 111 relating to separation of schools by race and repeal portions of Amendment 111 concerning constitutional construction against the right to education, and to repeal Section 259, Amendment 90, and Amendment 109 relating to the poll tax.

Those provisions were meant to preserve segregation and were long ago struck down by the courts so they have not been legally binding for many years, but the provisions were still in the constitution. The Amendment was intended to formally remove the language as "the right thing to do."

[The Zug]

2. As someone who grew up in Alabama . . .

Those are pretty damn sad numbers. Hardly surprising, but sad.

[RobertSeattle]

3. Why such different totals from Amendment 2 and Prez?

Total votes for Amendment #2: 1,379,938

Total votes for President: 1,881,407

Why would there be 500,000 more votes for President than the Amendment, were people obstaining "en masse"?

[Syrinx]

5. People were confused by the amendment

Roy Moore and similar vermin argued that amendment 2 would result in higher taxes because it would have "required" educating children at public expense. I put required in quotes, because as a practical matter it already is required.

Or maybe the scanners were programmed to add votes for Bush, but this wasn't done in the constitutional vote.

[Syrinx]

6. damn

In Alabama, Reagan beat Carter by ONE point in 1980. E-Voting went in 1983. Reagan won by 23 in 1984!

[chathamdem in NC]

7. Oddities in past Alabama votes

I live in NC, but was concerned about issue of presidential vote not being covered under straight ticket vote (as it in NC). The ballot I downloaded from State BOE site for AL doesn't show a straight ticket option.

Meanwhile a lot of voters here turned out to defeat Bush, but weren't up to speed on three proposed state amendments, so some didn't vote on those.

Biggest sign of irregularity to my mind are as seen elsewhere too:

1. More votes than voters (this has to be checked at the county level and is legally public information, by precinct. If there are more total votes in any race than voters supposedly signed in, you should ask to see the voter books to verify number of voters and then challenge the results. (This happened in my county during Jesse Helms race in 1990 and incorrect result was ceritifed anyhow).

2. Discrepancies that are not credible in terms of number of total votes in (for instance) presidential, senate, or any other race compared to votes in congressional or other races. Only those who volunteered to work outside polls can verify whether voters were coming just to vote for Prez (for instance).

In Alabama Nov. 2004 election, the participation in senate and presidential races seems the same, more or less...But I don't have time to do the math on all the US House races... This is Nov. 9th, New York Times data.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/elections2004/2004AL.html

[quaoar]

8. The straight party ticket option

was available in Jefferson County. I assume it was statewide as well, though I don't know for sure.

[MelissaB]

9. It was available in Florence, too. nt

[BamaLefty]

10. Speaking of Florence...

I can't believe that Lauderdale County voted for *! The Shoals has always been heavily Democratic. What happened?