RECORD-HIGH VOTER TURNOUT IN TUSCALOOSA COUNTY

Alabama’s chief election officer, Secretary of State John Merrill called Tuesday’s election,” A great day in Alabama.”

There are 3,330,802 registered voters in Alabama.
Around 62 percent of those voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s election.

“We are very excited that people chose to exercise their right to vote, Merrill said, “because we know that civic education is so important to ensure that our communities continue to grow and become all that they can possibly be.”

In Tuscaloosa County, a record number of voters turned out.
There are 132,634 people registered and 83,047 of them voted.
That’s 62 percent.
“I can remember during my tenure in office, we didn’t have 83,000 voters on the roll, but to have that many vote on a given election certainly makes you feel really good,” Tuscaloosa County Probate Judge Hardy McCollum told WVUA 23.

Improvements were also made in polling places across the state.

“With the electronic poll books, voters were simply able to give poll workers their ID, which was used to pull up their contact information. Then people were able to get their ballot and vote,” Merrill said.

Tuscaloosa County did not use electronic poll books.
People waited in some lines for over an hour. McCollum says that’s a good problem to have, but he and his staff are working to make sure the voting experience is as convenient as possible for voters next go round.