The state Republican party was so confident that it sent volunteers to neighboring Florida, a battleground state.  Kerry's selection of a Southerner, Sen. John Edwards, did not help the Democratic ticket here, nor did  the organization that state Democratic party chair Redding Pitt put together.  Kerry fared worse than Gore had, obtaining roughly the same number of votes amid higher turnout.

The eleven counties Kerry won:

	Kerry	Bush
Montgomery	45,160	44,097
Dallas	11,175	7,335
Russell	8,375	8,337
Macon	7,800	1,570
Hale	4,631	3,281
Sumter	4,527	1,880
Lowndes	4,233	1,786
Wilcox	3,838	1,834
Perry	3,767	1,738
Greene	3,764	958
Bullock	3,210	1,494

These counties are all in a block across the southern part of the state.  In 2000 Gore also won Barbour, Marengo, Choctaw and Conecuh, as well as Colbert, Lawrence and Jackson in the north.
 

Bush-Cheney '04	Kerry-Edwards 2004
Organization details...	details...
BC'04 State Chair: Sen. Richard Shelby     Alabama Republican Party State Chair: Marty Connors Exec. Director: Chris Brown Office: 3321 Lorna Road Suite 6, Birmingham	KE Chairman: Redding Pitt KE State Director: Ted Hosp Comm. Director: Doug Gillett Office: 205 20th St. North, Birmingham Alabama Democratic Party State Chair: Redding Pitt Exec. Director: Mike Kanarick Office: The Bell Building, Suite 700, 207 Montgomery Street, Montgomery

Travel

Pres. Bush made a stop, although not part of the campaign: Sept. 19, 2004 - touring damage from Hurricane Ivan, he walked the beachfront with officials and greeted first responders at Orange Beach Fire and Rescue Station 1 at Orange Beach, AL. Laura Bush made a couple of stops on July 14, 2004: -takes part in a reading roundtable and media availability at Hueytown Elementary School in Hueytown, AL.  -attends RNC Victory 2004 event at The Club in Birmingham, AL.  (Raises $500,000).

Sen. Edwards made one visit: Aug. 17, 2004 - evening reception at the Summit Club in downtown Birmingham, AL (raised a reported $600,000 for the DNC); Edwards stayed in Birmingham overnight and left the next morning for New Orleans.

Newspaper Endorsements

BUSH Birmingham News  (10/24/04) Mobile Register  (09/26/04) The TimesDaily [Florence] The Gadsden Times Birminingham Post-Herald

KERRY Montgomery Advertiser  (10/?/04) The Tuscaloosa News  (10/24/04) The Anniston Star  (10/19/04) The Decatur Daily  (10/24/04)

Third Party and Independent
Ballot Access Note
Independent Alabama, an "alliance of voters crossing party and independent lines," coordinated a joint petition to help the third party candidates and Nader gather the 5,000 signatures required to appear on the ballot as independents (Sept. 6, 2004 deadline for filing petitions).  However on August 18, 2004 Attorney General Troy King issued an advisory opinion stating that only one name could appear on a petition. (See: 2004-204 [PDF] from August 18, 2004; also 2004-106 [PDF] from March 30, 2004).

General Election Ballot Access (from the Office of Secretary of State Nancy Worley "Presidential Candidate Ballot Access Election 2004")
-To qualify for statewide ballot access, a political party must receive more than twenty percent (20%) of the vote cast in the state at the last general election.
-For other parties there is a petition process.  File a petition by June 1 with the secretary of state containing at least 41,012 signatures of qualified electors. The number of petition signatures for statewide ballot access must equal or exceed three percent (3%) of the electors who cast ballots for the office of governor in the last general election. [§17-8-2.1]
-An independent presidential candidate must file a petition containing the signatures of at least five thousand (5,000) qualified electors of the state who must include their addresses on the petition to be valid. [§17-19-2(a) through (b)]  All certificates and presidential petitions for independent candidacy must be filed with the Alabama secretary of state no later than September 6, 2004. [§17-19-2(b)]

State Coordinators
Nader: Mark Leszkiewicz
Badnarik: James Hines
Cobb: Matthew Hellinger

Candidate Visits
Mr. Nader:
Oct. 29, 2004 - speech at Cudworth Auditorium at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL.

Mr. Peroutka:
Oct. 23, 2004 - addressed the League of the South's annual meeting in Montgomery, AL.

Mr. Cobb:
July 29, 2004 - at Homewood Public Library in Homewood; at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Montgomery; and at Satori Coffee House in Mobile, AL.

Copyright ©  2004, 2005  Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action.
 

AL Republican Party www.algop.org	AL Democratic Party www.aladems.org
Libertarian Party of AL www.al.lp.org	AL Green Party www.alabamagreenparty.org	AL Constitution Party www.alconstitutionparty.org
		...Senate
Richard Shelby (R) shelbyforsenate.com	Wayne Sowell (D) www.waynesowell2004.org