Tagged: Election 2012

Alabama's voter turnout for Tuesday's election was slightly less than the unusually high performance four years ago.

Secretary of State Beth Chapman said Wednesday the turnout for the general election was 72.4 percent. More than 73 percent of Alabama's voters participated in 2008. Chapman had forecast the turnout would fall between 72 percent and 74 percent.

The 2008 figure remains the highest since Alabama recorded a 76 percent turnout in the 1992 presidential race, according to figures compiled by the secretary of state's office.

Even a dead Republican beat a Democrat in the GOP's sweep of Alabama.

A Republican nominee who died almost month before Election Day beat the Democratic incumbent for a seat on the Bibb County Commission on Tuesday.

Probate Judge Jerry Pow says Republican nominee Charles Beasley defeated Democrat Walter Sansing despite having died on Oct. 12. Beasley carried about 52 percent of the votes.

Pow says some voters probably didn't know Beasley died before the election, but others did.

Alabama's top election official has extended the deadline for applying for an absentee ballot for military and National Guard personnel deployed to help victims of Superstorm Sandy.

Alabama Republican Party Chairman Bill Armistead is accusing Democratic chief justice candidate Bob Vance of violating federal election law with a $2,000 contribution to Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2008.

Armistead filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission on Thursday saying that Vance should have registered as a federal campaign committee after he made the contribution from his state campaign account.

Four of the justices who served on the Alabama Supreme Court with former Chief Justice Roy Moore are among 10 bipartisan former and current justices who have signed a letter endorsing Moore's opponent in the Nov. 6 chief justice election.

Moore's opponent in the chief justice race, Democrat Bob Vance, held a news conference Tuesday in front of the Alabama Judicial Building to release the letter.

The political consulting firm that helped Robert Bentley win the governor's office is now helping persuade voters to give him more money to lure jobs to Alabama.

Bentley is appearing in TV ads urging voters to vote yes on Amendment 2 in the election Nov. 6. The ads were done by Dresner Wickers Barber Sanders. That's a San Francisco firm that helped get across Bentley's message in 2010 that he would not draw a salary as governor until he got Alabama's high unemployment rate down to normal levels.

Alabama Secretary of State Beth Chapman says absentee ballots for military and overseas voters went out late from 22 counties and an extra 10 days is being provided for the return of the ballots.

Chapman said federal law gives military and overseas voters 45 days to receive and return their absentee ballots. But not all ballots requested by the Sept. 22 deadline were sent out on time. She is extending the deadline for election officials to receive the ballots by 10 days to Nov. 16. But the ballots must be postmarked or given to a commercial carrier by Nov. 5.

Amendment 7 on Alabama's ballot looks like a simple measure to preserve the right to a secret ballot. In reality, it injects voters into a battle between labor and management.

The ballot measure provides that Alabama citizens have a fundamental right to vote for public office and employee representation by secret ballot.

If passed, it would prohibit unions from organizing by card check, where they get more than half of the employees at a company to check a box on a card saying they want union representation.