Cooper Not Conceding Mayor’s Race
Attorney Patrick Cooper is “not bowing out” of the Birmingham mayoral race, according to TV news reports in Birmingham. Apparent victor Larry Langford received 26,227 votes and needed 26,056 for a simple majority of the 52,111 votes cast. The Cooper campaign evidently would like an opportunity to shake the bushes a bit to see if anything falls out. A recount could move a few votes, and no doubt the campaign would like to poke around the absentee ballots, provisional ballots and anything else that looks irregular.
Results are scheduled to be certified on Wednesday.
If the certified results do unexpectedly indicate that Birmingham will have a run-off to elect its mayor, Langford’s large lead would be difficult to overcome, though not impossible, according to history. In the 1999 mayoral race, then-interim mayor William Bell received 49.4% of the vote and challenger Bernard Kincaid won 26.7% (Birmingham News, Oct. 14, 1999), but Kincaid won the run-off, 51% to 49%.
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No comment on the montgomery city council runoffs? James Nuckles (Alvin Holmes of the Council) and Janet May (along the same lines not as outspoken) both lost as incumbents.
Comment by William Wyatt Wallace — October 10, 2007 @ 9:17 am
Thanks, William, a good article is here from the Montgomery Advertiser. When turnout gets low like that, challengers really have a better chance at winning than normal. Very interesting!
Comment by Danny — October 10, 2007 @ 4:39 pm