Threats of heavy rains throughout the state didn't put a damper on the voter turnout in Crenshaw County.

Of the 8,883 registered voters, 5,512 or 62 percent made it out to the polls to cast their vote in the General Election.

"That's not quite as heavy as I thought it would be," Crenshaw County Probate Judge Jim Perdue said Tuesday evening. "This was an election concerning presidential candidates more than anything else. Of the 5,512 votes cast, there were only 15 voters that didn't participate in the presidential primary, which compares to a lot of issues where there were as many as 50 percent that didn't participate, like with some of the amendments. All-in-all, I think it went very well."

Crenshaw County voters without a doubt showed most of their support for the Republican Party. With 19 of 20 precincts counted, President George W. Bush received the popular vote over democrat John F. Kerry by a 3 to 1 vote. According to unofficial results, Bush received 3,774 or 68.6 percent of the total votes compared to Kerry's 1,698 votes (30.8 percent) countywide.

As for the other presidential candidates, Ralph Nader received 17 votes, Michael Peroutka had six votes and Michael Badnarik received two votes.

"As far as the election process, all precincts reported in very promptly," Perdue said. "All precincts were in by 9:03 p.m. and that's a little bit better than before. That means within two hours of the time the polls closed even in the far reaches of the county all poll workers were in with their results and they were tallied, so things had to go well."

Perdue, who visited all 18 polling sites in Crenshaw County on Election Day, said the election went off without any major incidents.

"We had very few minor incidents of polling problems and usually that was a name that might had been dropped off," Perdue said. "We had one jam in one box and we were able to resolve it rather quickly. Everything worked out."

As for provisional ballots, which are ballots used by voters whose names don't appear on the voter's registration roll and are not counted until the voter's eligibility is verified after the election, there were only a handful cast throughout the county.

"We probably had less than half a dozen," Perdue said.

Provisional voting drew a lot of national attention with the new Help America Vote Act of 2002. Perdue said making sure eligible voters were not left out was a goal prior to the election.

"We didn't have that many provisional votes," Perdue said. "I give the credit to our Board of Registrars for doing a good job of keeping our polling list in good shape and the diligent work of our poll workers. They're the people that need a lot of credit."

Republicans Richard Shelby (Senate 3,932), Terry Everett (U.S. Representative 3,886), Tom Parker (Supreme Court place 1 - 3,109), Patti M. Smith (Supreme Court place 2 - 3,436) and Mike Bolin

(Supreme Court place 3 - 3,193) were each also favored nearly 3 to 1. Republican Tommy Bryan (2,951) received 760 more votes than Sharon G. Yates in the Court of Civil Appeals Judge race and republican Joe Knowles (2,848) received 858 more votes than Ella B. Bell in the State Board of Education, District No. 5 race.

Click on the following links to see election results.

Results