All across America Tuesday night, voters tuned in for the final results of a tumultuous campaign season.
In many states, Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton were separated by only a percentage point, and the outcome was not determined until early Wednesday morning. But not in Covington County, and not in Alabama.
Alabama was one of the first two states called for Trump – a shock to no one. With most counties’ votes tallied, Trump had 66.59 percent of the votes cast in Alabama.
Locally, his margin was even stronger. In an election that had record high turnout, Trump received 13,222 votes, or 83 percent of the 15,979 votes cast.  Clinton received 2,379, or 14.98 percent of local presidential ballots.
Tuesday’s local voter turnout was 63.05 percent – high by local standards, but not as high was in the 2008 presidential election, when 71 percent of local voters participated. That year, Covington County also voted Republican, but President Barack Obama received 21 percent of the local ballots cast.
“Sixty-five percent is incredible turnout,” local GOP Chairman William Blocker said.
The local election also was marked by a huge number of write-in votes. Write-ins were cast in every race, totally 3,564 across the ballot. Most of them – 1,804 – were cast in the 2nd District race for Congress.
None of the local candidates had Democratic opposition. Blocker said that probably was a contributing factor in the number of write-ins cast.
“We always have a few, but the results were surprising,” he said. “There were a hundred-plus write-ins for almost everybody. Maybe it was because there was not strong Democratic opposition. Maybe they were declaring their independence.”
See andalusiastarnews.com for local totals in each race.