(posted 11/6/02)
Republican Congressman Bob Riley appears to have won Alabama's Governorship
after a mistake by poll workers in Baldwin County

Bob Riley reads the unofficial election totals from the Associated Press
that could make him Alabama's next Governor

It had to have been one of the strangest election days in Alabama history. Voters turned out to the polls in unusually high numbers, despite heavy rain and severe thunderstorms. There were also several tornado warnings. A twister touched down in Abbeville, killing one person, injuring more than 25 and delaying ballot counts. Things got even stranger after Governor Don Siegelman declared a premature victory over Republican challenger Congressman Bob Riley. But an apparent error made by Baldwin County election workers accidentally gave Siegelman 7,000 extra votes. And when the error was discovered by Republican Party officials, it appeared to give Riley a narrow victory.

Here are Riley's post-election comments made to the press ...

Bob Riley - When you transpose the number (from the Baldwin County voting precinct), you have Siegelman with a vote total of 667,066, and Riley with 669,882, which means we win folks! (a crowd of supporters begins to cheer and chant Riley's name) According to the Associated Press, that would put us up 2,816 votes. We win, and Alabama's got a new day coming

Press Pool - Can you comment on what caused the confusion?

Riley - AP reported an erroneous number that got into the mix. We called the courthouse and got the correct number, transposed it, and I think that people should be calling this race pretty quickly.

Press Pool - What were the actual numbers involved in Baldwin County?

Riley - If you go through it, AP originally reported 31,000 for me. 19,000 for the Governor. What the actual vote was ... 31,000 for me and 12,000 for Siegelman. That will translate to moving these numbers for Siegelman to 667,000 and me to 669,000. It's almost the reverse of the initial outcome.

Press Pool - Did you expect the race to be this close?

Riley - Yeah, we knew it was going to be close all the way through. And there were so many things that happened today ... with the tornadoes, with the bad weather. You know, there's just a lot of things out there that we're still trying to figure out. But we knew it would be close. Anytime you run against an incumbent Governor it's going to be close.

Press Pool - Some analysts say if you'd have stayed on your white horse and hadn't gotten down in the mud with Siegelman, it wouldn't have been this close.

Riley - You know, everybody says that. And I wish that could have happened. But when someone attacks you repeatedly with things that are absolutely baseless, then you have no choice but to respond to those attacks.

Press Pool - Do you have your transition team together?

Riley- No, we're still counting votes (laughs).

Publisher's Note : Governor Siegelman contends the original Baldwin County numbers are accurate, and Democratic leaders will likely challenge the new results. Those results will be officially certified on Friday.

Click here for Governor Bor Riley's State of the State address delivered on March 4th, 2003

Click here for Governor Bob Riley's Inaugural Speech

Click here for the 11/20/02 story - Governor Don Siegelman Concedes

Click here for the 11/9/02 story - Governor Don Siegelman Challenges Close Election

Click here for the 11/6/02 story - Introducing, Alabama's Next Governor ... ?

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