Calling it a &#8220great victory” Gov. Bob Riley praised the people of Alabama for their support of a constitutional amendment allowing the state to sell $400 million in bonds for industrial incentives.

&#8220The people made the right choice and I thank them,” said Riley. &#8220Their vote will bring more jobs to our state.

It will sustain our economic growth, which makes it possible to put more money into education.

It will keep Alabama in competition for thousands of more jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity.

The future has never looked brighter for Alabama.”

With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Amendment 1 was favored by nearly a 4-to-1 margin by state voters. In Butler County, voters overwhelmingly supported the referendum, 1410 to 224.

Similarly, voters supported Amendment 2, which secures constitutional protection for newly created trust funds to save money for health insurance costs of retired state and school workers. Butler County voted 1,443 to 187 in favor of Amendment 2.

Butler County Probate Judge Steve Norman reported no problems at the polls in the county.

&#8220Everything went well,” he said. &#8220We had no malfunctions (at voting machines).”

Statewide projection for turnout was 8.8 percent. Butler County met the 10 percent turnout projected by officials prior to the election.

According to Gov. Riley's office approximately $195 million of the approved $400 million will be used to provide incentives to ThyssenKrupp AG, the German steel mill that elected to locate in Mobile in May.

Mobile County Commissioner Stephen Nodine told the Mobile Press-Register he was troubled by the low voter turnout in Baldwin and Mobile Counties during the day.

&uot;What I’m disheartened with is that we have more to gain than anybody. We have a substantial investment in this vote,&uot; said Nodine. &uot;I think we’re going to be all right, but a stronger turnout would have certainly helped.&uot;