The Alabama gubernatorial election of 2002 was held as part of Alabama's State General Election on Tuesday November 5, 2002. The race pitted incumbent Don Siegelman (D) against Representative Bob Riley (R) and Libertarian candidate John Sophocleus. Official language(s) English Capital Montgomery Largest city Birmingham Area  Ranked 30th  - Total 52,423 sq. ... November 5 is the 309th day of the year (310th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 56 days remaining. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Donald Eugene Don Siegelman (born February 24, 1946, in Mobile, Alabama) is an American Democratic politician. ... Democratic Party may refer to one of many political parties of diverse political orientation: Democratic Parties United States—Democratic Party (United States) Albania—Democratic Alliance Party, Democratic Party (Albania), and Democratic Party of Albania Andorra—Democratic Party (Andorra) Australia—Australian Democrats Benin—Democratic Party (Benin) Bosnia and Herzegovina—Croatian Democratic... Robert Renfroe Bob Riley (born October 3, 1944) is an American politician in the Republican Party. ... Republican Party is a name used by many political parties. ... Libertarian Party can refer to several libertarian political parties, including: United States Libertarian Party Libertarian Party of Canada Movimiento Libertario of Costa Rica The Libertarianz of New Zealand Libertarian Party of Australia There are also political parties that hold some of the same policies as the above parties but do... John Sophocleus preparing to give an on-air interview for WACV 1170AM in Montgomery, Alabama during his 2002 gubernatorial campaign. ...

The result was nearly a dead tie between Siegelman and Riley. The certified results showed Riley with 672,225 votes to Siegelman's 669,105 (a difference of 3,120 votes, or 0.23% of the 1,367,053 votes cast). Sophocleus garnered 23,272 votes and 2,451 votes were for write-in candidates.

Controversy

Riley's victory was controversial, and caused many commentators to recall the Florida election recount of 2000. [1][2] Initial returns showed Riley narrowly losing to Siegelman. However, Republican officials in Baldwin County - one of the few counties where all of the county officers in charge of elections were Republicans - condcucted a recount and retabulation of that county's votes after midnight, and after Democratic Party observers had gone home for the night. [3] Alabama law requires that counting of ballots take place in the presence of the designated observers of a party or candidate. [4][5] Approximately 6,000 votes initially credited to Siegelman were either removed from the total or reassigned to Riley in the recount, turning the statewide result in Riley's favor.[6] Local Republican officials claimed the earlier returns were the result of a "computer glitch." Ibid. Democratic requests to repeat the recount with Democratic observers present were rejected by Alabama courts and then-Attorney General William H. Pryor, Jr. Siegelman and his supporters complained that these judges (and Pryor) were either elected as Republicans or appointed by Republican presidents. [7] The Florida Recount of 2000 was a period of vote re-counting that occurred following the unclear results of the 2000 US presidential election. ... Baldwin County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. ...

A number of analyses of the competing claims were undertaken at the time, with conflicting results. In one such study, Auburn University political scientist James H. Gundlach concluded that a detailed analysis of the returns, compared with 1998 results and returns from undisputed counties, "strongly suggests a systematic manipulation of the voting results." [8] The Gundlach study also suggested a mechanism by which this could have been effected, and proposed a conclusion that Siegelman won. An earlier analysis reported by the Associated Press, using a less sophisticated comparison of gubernatorial and legislative returns, was claimed to indicate that the revised returns were more accurate, and that Riley probably won. [9] The Gundlach paper offers a refutation of the conclusions of the Associated Press study. Auburn University (AU) is a state university located in Auburn, Alabama in the United States. ...

Largely as a result of this controversy, the Alabama Legislature later amended the election code to provide for automatic, supervised recounts in close races. [10] Riley took office in January 2003. 2003: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December A timeline of events in the news for January, 2003. ...

External links

• 2002 Election information at sos.state.al.us
• Certified lection results (PDF) at sos.state.al.us