Elections in Alabama
Elections in Alabama |
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Government |
Elections in Alabama are authorized under the
The office of the
In a 2020 study, Alabama was ranked as the 12th hardest state for citizens to vote in.[1]
State elections
History
With the
Demographic changes and developments in the 1986 Democratic primary election led to the election of the first Republican governor by majority-white voters in more than a century. This was the beginning of what is now Republican political dominance in the state. One million voters cast ballots in the 1986 Democratic primary. The then-incumbent lieutenant governor, Bill Baxley, lost the Democratic nomination for governor by approximately 8,000 votes to then fellow Democratic Attorney General Charles Graddick.
The state Democratic party's five-member election contest committee invalidated the primary election result, claiming that thousands of Republicans had "illegally" voted in the Democratic primary for Graddick. As a result, they removed Graddick from the ballot. The Democratic Party placed Baxley's name on the ballot as the Democratic candidate instead of Graddick. The voters of the state revolted at what they perceived as disenfranchisement of their right to vote and elected the Republican challenger,
Since 1986, Republicans have won six of the seven gubernatorial elections and become increasingly competitive in Alabama politics at many levels. They currently control two seats of Alabama's U.S. Senate delegation and six out of seven of the state's U.S. Representative delegation. And all 9 seats on the Supreme Court of Alabama are held by Republicans.
Three Republican lieutenant governors have been elected since Reconstruction,
21st century
Republicans held all nine seats on the
Republicans hold all seven of the statewide elected executive branch offices. Republicans hold six of the eight elected seats on the Alabama State Board of Education. In 2010, Republicans took large majorities of both chambers of the state legislature, giving them control of that body for the first time in 136 years. Democrats lost their last remaining statewide office in November 2012 with the re-election defeat of the president of the Alabama Public Service Commission, thus giving Republicans all three of its seats.[9][10][11]
Local elections
In the late 20th century, Alabama maintained its extensive system of at-large voting for most county and municipal offices, including County Commissioners, Boards of Education, Tax Assessors, Tax Collectors, etc. As a result, in majority-white jurisdictions, black minorities, even when significant in proportion and then able to register and vote, were generally unable to elect any candidates of their choice in such elections. These practices were challenged by plaintiffs under Dillard v. Crenshaw County (1986). The federal district judge found that the state's broad use of at-large elections had a racially discriminatory purpose and violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The state's use of a "place system", which precluded single-shot voting, was found specifically to have been adopted to "impede the ability of African-American voters to elect" candidates of their choice.[12]
Following the court ruling on the state's use of this system, the plaintiffs expanded their dilution claims in Dillard in an omnibus application to "include the at-large election systems to include other county commissions, county school boards, and municipal councils across the state."[12] The amended complaint covered nearly "200 units of local government", challenging at-large systems in local jurisdictions in which blacks were at least 10 percent of the population.[12] Most of the affected jurisdictions settled these cases by adopting single-member district systems (SMDs), which has resulted in the election of more blacks to local offices, generally in proportion to their part of the jurisdiction's population; this has resulted in more Democrats being elected to office. Limited voting schemes were adopted by 21 municipalities in negotiation with the plaintiffs, and another six jurisdictions adopted cumulative voting arrangements. As a result, total representation by black candidates has increased in local elections for municipal and county government, as well as county school boards.[12] Elections have been held since 1988 under these alternative systems.
As of the early 21st century, local elections in most rural counties, many of which are black dominated, are generally decided in the Democratic primary, and local elections in metropolitan and suburban counties, which are generally white majority, are decided in the Republican primary, although there are exceptions.[13][14]
Alabama's 67 County Sheriffs are elected in partisan elections, and Democrats until 2016 retained the majority of those posts. The current split as of April 2017 is 32
Federal elections
History
Year | Republican / Whig | Democratic | Third party | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
2020 | 1,441,170 | 62.03% | 849,624 | 36.57% | 32,488 | 1.40% |
2016 | 1,318,255 | 62.08% | 729,547 | 34.36% | 75,570 | 3.56% |
2012 | 1,255,925 | 60.55% | 795,696 | 38.36% | 22,717 | 1.10% |
2008 | 1,266,546 | 60.32% | 813,479 | 38.74% | 19,794 | 0.94% |
2004 | 1,176,394 | 62.46% | 693,933 | 36.84% | 13,122 | 0.70% |
2000 | 944,409 | 56.47% | 695,602 | 41.59% | 32,540 | 1.95% |
1996 | 769,044 | 50.12% | 662,165 | 43.16% | 103,140 | 6.72% |
1992 | 804,283 | 47.65% | 690,080 | 40.88% | 193,697 | 11.47% |
1988 | 815,576 | 59.17% | 549,506 | 39.86% | 13,394 | 0.97% |
1984 | 872,849 | 60.54% | 551,899 | 38.28% | 16,965 | 1.18% |
1980 | 654,192 | 48.75% | 636,730 | 47.45% | 51,007 | 3.80% |
1976 | 504,070 | 42.61% | 659,170 | 55.73% | 19,610 | 1.66% |
1972 | 728,701 | 72.43% | 256,923 | 25.54% | 20,469 | 2.03% |
1968 | 146,923 | 13.99% | 196,579 | 18.72% | 706,415 | 67.28% |
1964 | 479,085 | 69.45% | 0 | 0.00% | 210,732 | 30.55% |
1960 | 237,981 | 42.16% | 318,303 | 56.39% | 8,189 | 1.45% |
1956 | 195,694 | 39.39% | 280,844 | 56.52% | 20,333 | 4.09% |
1952 | 149,231 | 35.02% | 275,075 | 64.55% | 1,814 | 0.43% |
1948 | 40,930 | 19.04% | 0 | 0.00% | 174,050 | 80.96% |
1944 | 44,540 | 18.20% | 198,918 | 81.28% | 1,285 | 0.53% |
1940 | 42,184 | 14.34% | 250,726 | 85.22% | 1,309 | 0.44% |
1936 | 35,358 | 12.82% | 238,196 | 86.38% | 2,190 | 0.79% |
1932 | 34,675 | 14.13% | 207,910 | 84.74% | 2,769 | 1.13% |
1928 | 120,725 | 48.49% | 127,796 | 51.33% | 460 | 0.18% |
1924 | 40,615 | 25.02% | 113,138 | 69.69% | 8,602 | 5.30% |
1920 | 96,589 | 37.11% | 160,560 | 61.68% | 3,158 | 1.21% |
1916 | 28,662 | 21.92% | 99,409 | 76.04% | 2,657 | 2.03% |
1912 | 9,717 | 8.24% | 82,438 | 69.94% | 25,714 | 21.82% |
1908 | 25,372 | 24.18% | 74,374 | 70.88% | 5,186 | 4.94% |
1904 | 22,472 | 20.65% | 79,857 | 73.37% | 6,516 | 5.99% |
1900 | 55,612 | 34.82% | 97,129 | 60.82% | 6,951 | 4.35% |
1896 | 55,673 | 28.61% | 130,298 | 66.96% | 8,609 | 4.42% |
1892 | 9,184 | 3.95% | 138,135 | 59.40% | 85,224 | 36.65% |
1888 | 57,177 | 32.66% | 117,314 | 67.00% | 594 | 0.34% |
1884 | 59,444 | 38.69% | 92,736 | 60.37% | 1,444 | 0.94% |
1880 | 56,350 | 37.10% | 91,130 | 59.99% | 4,422 | 2.91% |
1876 | 68,708 | 40.02% | 102,989 | 59.98% | 2 | 0.00% |
1872 | 90,272 | 53.19% | 79,444 | 46.81% | 0 | 0.00% |
1868 | 76,667 | 51.25% | 72,921 | 48.75% | 6 | 0.00% |
1860 | 0 | 0.00% | 13,618 | 15.11% | 76,504 | 84.89% |
1856 | 0 | 0.00% | 46,739 | 62.08% | 28,552 | 37.92% |
1852 | 15,061 | 34.12% | 26,881 | 60.89% | 2,205 | 4.99% |
1848 | 30,482 | 49.44% | 31,173 | 50.56% | 4 | 0.01% |
1844 | 26,002 | 41.01% | 37,401 | 58.99% | 0 | 0.00% |
1840 | 28,515 | 45.62% | 33,996 | 54.38% | 0 | 0.00% |
1836 | 16,658 | 44.66% | 20,638 | 55.34% | 0 | 0.00% |
From 1876 through 1956, Alabama supported only Democratic presidential candidates, by large margins. There were only two exceptions; the 1928 elections in which the Democrats won by a much smaller margin than normal due to Anti-Catholic prejudices against the Democratic candidate Al Smith, and the 1948 election when Alabama, along with Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Carolina, voted for Strom Thurmond of the pro-segregation States Rights Democratic Party. In 1960, the Democrats won with John F. Kennedy on the ballot. However, six of the state's 11 Democratic electors were members of the unpledged elector movement, and gave their electoral votes as a protest to Harry Byrd.
The Alabama Paradox is named after the 1880 observation by U.S. census clerk C.W. Seaton that the state of Alabama would lose one of its 8 seats in the House of Representatives if the size of the House were increased from 299 to 300.[17]
In
In the 1968 presidential election, Alabama supported native son and American Independent Party candidate George Wallace over both Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey. Wallace was the official Democratic candidate in Alabama, while Humphrey was the National Democratic nominee.[18] In 1976, Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter from Georgia carried the state, but Democratic control proved to be temporary- Carter is the only Democrat since 1964 to carry the state.
Alabama does not register voters by party, but in recent statewide elections, Republican turnout in statewide primaries has consistently exceeded that for the Democrats. Alabama is now considered a Republican stronghold at both the federal and state level, although Democrats still retain a slim majority in many local offices (sheriffs, county commissioners, etc.). The state has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1980, and Democrats have not seriously contested the state since. Republicans have also done increasingly well in Senate and House elections; they have held a majority of the state's congressional delegation and both Senate seats since 1997, although they briefly lost a Senate seat from 2018 to 2021. In 2010, Republicans won large majorities in both chambers of the Alabama Legislature ending 136 years of Democratic rule; see Dixiecrat. In 2012, Democrats lost the only remaining statewide office the party still held giving Republicans control of all 10 state constitutional offices. The GOP also has won all 19 statewide court seats.
The 11 counties that consistently vote Democratic are Black Belt counties, where African Americans are the majority racial group. Republicans have gotten over 60% of the vote in every presidential election since 2004.
Presidential elections
See also
- Government of Alabama
- Political party strength in Alabama
- Politics of Alabama
- Elections in the United States
- Women's suffrage in Alabama
References
- S2CID 225139517.
- ^ Joseph H. Taylor, "Populism and Disfranchisement in Alabama", The Journal of Negro History Vol. 34, No. 4 (Oct., 1949), pp. 410-427(subscription required)
- ^ J. Morgan Kousser.The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974
- ^ Glenn Feldman, The Disfranchisement Myth: Poor Whites and Suffrage Restriction in Alabama, Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004, pp. 135–136
- ^ Bowler and GRofman Elections in Australia, Ireland and Malta, p. 40
- ^ Stovall, Cotter, & Fisher, Alabama Political Almanac, p. 260, 1995
- ^ "Sue Bell Cobb considering running for governor". The Birmingham News. al.com. 2009-05-02. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
- ^ "ROE v. STATE OF ALA. | 68 F.3d 404 (1995) | 8f3d4041378". Leagle.com. 1995-10-13. Retrieved 2022-08-12.
- ^ "Commissioners". Psc.state.al.us. Archived from the original on 2009-07-18. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
- ^ Special (2008-11-05). "Lucy Baxley wins Alabama Public Service Commission presidency, but recount possible". Birmingham News via al.com. Archived from the original on 2009-08-02. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
- ^ Jeff Amy, Press-Register. "Public Service Commission: Twinkle Cavanaugh, Terry Dunn join GOP sweep". al.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-06. Retrieved 2011-06-01.
- ^ a b c d Georgia Anne Persons, editor, Race and Representation, Transaction Publishers, 1997, p. 185
- ^ "2006 Gubernatorial Democratic Primary Election Results - Alabama". Uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
- ^ "2006 Gubernatorial Republican Primary Election Results - Alabama". Uselectionatlas.org. 2007-02-15. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
- ^ a b c d "Alabama Sheriffs Association". Retrieved 2017-04-02.
- ^ Leip, David. "Presidential General Election Results Comparison – Alabama". US Election Atlas. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
- ^ https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-alabama-new-states-population-paradoxes.html#:~:text=The%20Alabama%20Paradox%20states%20that,found%20in%201880%20by%20C.W. [bare URL]
- ^ "1968 Presidential General Election Results – Alabama". Uselectionatlas.org. 1968-11-05. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
External links
- Alabama at Ballotpedia
- "State Elections Legislation Database", Ncsl.org, Washington, D.C.: National Conference of State Legislatures,
State legislation related to the administration of elections introduced in 2011 through this year, 2020
- Alabama Elections | Bama Politics