Marengo County votes blue in primarily red state

Published 4:20 pm Thursday, November 6, 2014

Election Day 2014 has come and gone, and the political landscape in Alabama still remains largely unchanged.

Republicans remain in control of the state after a non-eventful day of voting across the state. In Marengo County, however, voters sided with Democratic candidates in the few races with opposition.

Although Gov. Robert Bentley won the statewide race for governor with 64 percent of the vote, challenger Parker Griffith garnered the most votes in Marengo County, earning 54 percent of the nearly 7,000 votes cast in the county.

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The same can be said in the lieutenant governor’s race between Republican incumbent Kay Ivey and Democratic challenger James C. Fields Jr. Ivey won the statewide race with 63 percent of the vote, but in Marengo, Fields earned 53 percent to Ivey’s 46 percent.

Marengo voters stuck with this theme in the attorney general race between Republican Luther Strange, who won statewide with 59 percent, and Joe Hubbard, who claimed 58 percent of the vote in Marengo County.

Marengo County voters also went against the grain in the secretary of state race, the state auditor race and the commissioner of agriculture and industries race. Republican candidates won each of those races statewide, while Marengo County voters sided with their counterparts.

In each of the local races, candidates ran unopposed after earning wins in the summer primaries.

Voters in the county voted “yes” for statewide amendments one, three, four and five while voting “no” for statewide amendment two. Amendments one, three, four and five all passed statewide, and amendment two has yet to be called with 50 percent of the votes going each way.

Statewide turnout was lower than average, with an estimated 41 percent of Alabama voters going to the polls Tuesday. In Marengo County, approximately 43 percent of voters exercised their right on Election Day.