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All 10 Alabama electoral votes to the Electoral College | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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County Results
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Elections in Alabama |
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Government |
The 1968 United States presidential election in Alabama was held on November 5, 1968. In Alabama, voters voted for electors individually instead of as a slate, as in the other 49 states.
The 1960s had seen Alabama as the epicenter of the Civil Rights Movement, highlighted by numerous bombings by the Ku Klux Klan in "Bombingham",[1] Birmingham police commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor's use of attack dogs against civil rights protesters, attacks on the Freedom Riders and Selma to Montgomery marchers, and first-term Governor George Wallace's "stand in the door" against the desegregation of the University of Alabama.[2] The state Democratic Party, which had remained closed to African-Americans two decades after Smith v. Allwright outlawed the white primary,[3] had by a five-to-one margin refused to pledge its 1964 electors to incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson,[4] and no attempt was made to challenge this Wallace-sponsored Democratic slate with one loyal to the national party.[5] Despite sponsoring the state Democratic slate, in the 1964 general election Wallace would back Republican nominee Barry Goldwater,[6] who won almost seventy percent of Alabama's ballots against the state Democratic electors, for his opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
George Wallace would build a third party candidacy with his right-wing populist American Independent Party during the following two years, campaigning on opposition to desegregation, race riots, and the counterculture. However, with the state Democratic Party still refusing to integrate,[3] the national party made efforts to place its own electors on the Alabama ballot in 1967.[7] As expected, Wallace won the state Democratic primary in May, and was listed as the “Democratic” candidate on the Alabama ballot.[8] National Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey was able,[9] unlike Harry S. Truman and outgoing President Johnson, to gain ballot access on a fusion of the "Alabama Independent Democrat" and National Democratic lines.[10] 78% of white voters supported Wallace, 16% supported Nixon, and 4% supported Humphrey.[11][12][13]
Source | Rating | As of | Note |
---|---|---|---|
Lebanon Daily News[14] | Safe I (Flip) | September 17, 1968 | [b] |
Daily Press[15] | Certain I (Flip) | October 11, 1968 | |
The Charlotte News[16] | Certain I (Flip) | October 12, 1968 | |
The Record[17] | Likely I (Flip) | October 21, 1968 | |
Shreveport Times[18] | Safe I (Flip) | November 3, 1968 | |
The Selma Times-Journal[19] | Safe I (Flip) | November 3, 1968 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | George Wallace | 691,425 | 65.86% | +65.86% | |
National Democratic (Ala.) | Hubert Humphrey | 196,597 | 18.72% | +18.72% | |
Republican | Richard Nixon | 146,923 | 13.99% | −55.51% | |
American Independent | No Candidate | 10,960 | 1.04% | +1.04% | |
Prohibition | E. Harold Munn | 4,002 | 0.38% | +0.38% | |
Write-in | 8 | 0.00% | +0.00% | ||
Total votes | 1,049,915 | 100.00% |
Party | Pledged to | Elector | Votes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic Party | George Wallace | Albert Brewer | 691,425 | |
Democratic Party | George Wallace | MacDonald Gallion | 691,318 | |
Democratic Party | George Wallace | Jim Allen | 689,262 | |
Democratic Party | George Wallace | Armistead Selden | 689,009 | |
Democratic Party | George Wallace | Agnes Baggett | 687,876 | |
Democratic Party | George Wallace | Frank Mizell | 687,699 | |
Democratic Party | George Wallace | Earl Morgan | 687,664 | |
Democratic Party | George Wallace | Richard "Dick" Beard | 686,685 | |
Democratic Party | George Wallace | Mabel S. Amos | 686,667 | |
Democratic Party | George Wallace | Ernest Stone | 685,499 | |
Republican Party | Richard Nixon | William H. Graham | 146,923 | |
Republican Party | Richard Nixon | Paul Lowery | 146,876 | |
Republican Party | Richard Nixon | James C. Van Antwerp, Jr. | 146,717 | |
Republican Party | Richard Nixon | George Howard Young | 146,628 | |
Republican Party | Richard Nixon | Huit Sullivan | 146,613 | |
Republican Party | Richard Nixon | M. J. Lyons, Jr. | 146,591 | |
Republican Party | Richard Nixon | Lee Clyde Traylor | 146,368 | |
Republican Party | Richard Nixon | Robert H. Maxwell | 146,311 | |
Republican Party | Richard Nixon | J. Smith Lanier, II | 145,970 | |
Republican Party | Richard Nixon | Robert D. Wilkinson, Jr. | 145,694 | |
Alabama Independent Democratic Party | Hubert Humphrey | Dot Little | 142,435 | |
Alabama Independent Democratic Party | Hubert Humphrey | Ben F. Ray | 142,218 | |
Alabama Independent Democratic Party | Hubert Humphrey | Lafayette Patterson | 141,199 | |
Alabama Independent Democratic Party | Hubert Humphrey | Roy D. McCord | 141,124 | |
Alabama Independent Democratic Party | Hubert Humphrey | Charles A. Bentley, Jr. | 140,728 | |
Alabama Independent Democratic Party | Hubert Humphrey | Isom Clemon | 140,387 | |
Alabama Independent Democratic Party | Hubert Humphrey | Coleman A. Lollar, Jr. | 140,386 | |
Alabama Independent Democratic Party | Hubert Humphrey | J. E. Brantley | 140,342 | |
Alabama Independent Democratic Party | Hubert Humphrey | James McArthur Reed | 140,218 | |
Alabama Independent Democratic Party | Hubert Humphrey | Joe L. Reed | 140,093 | |
National Democratic Party of Alabama | Hubert Humphrey | William McKinley Branch | 54,144 | |
National Democratic Party of Alabama | Hubert Humphrey | E. D. Bouier | 53,700 | |
National Democratic Party of Alabama | Hubert Humphrey | Robert Schwenn | 53,666 | |
National Democratic Party of Alabama | Hubert Humphrey | J. H. Davis | 53,622 | |
National Democratic Party of Alabama | Hubert Humphrey | R. E. Cordray | 53,264 | |
National Democratic Party of Alabama | Hubert Humphrey | Billy Joe Robinson | 53,226 | |
National Democratic Party of Alabama | Hubert Humphrey | Jack Drake | 53,068 | |
National Democratic Party of Alabama | Hubert Humphrey | Virginia Durr | 53,015 | |
National Democratic Party of Alabama | Hubert Humphrey | George DeBoer | 52,909 | |
National Democratic Party of Alabama | Hubert Humphrey | James Williams | 52,464 | |
American Independent Party | George Wallace | Steve E. Nation | 10,960 | |
American Independent Party | George Wallace | Aaron C. Edwards | 10,518 | |
American Independent Party | George Wallace | Ronald L. Pankey | 10,437 | |
American Independent Party | George Wallace | Bernice H. Morrison | 10,365 | |
Prohibition Party | E. Harold Munn | D. N. Stephenson | 4,022 | |
Prohibition Party | E. Harold Munn | Phoebe Cary Shoemaker | 3,814 | |
Prohibition Party | E. Harold Munn | J. E. Dillard | 3,770 | |
Prohibition Party | E. Harold Munn | Ogburn A. Gardner | 3,661 | |
Prohibition Party | E. Harold Munn | Bertha Wallis Lee | 3,638 | |
Prohibition Party | E. Harold Munn | Beulah K. Gray | 3,615 | |
Prohibition Party | E. Harold Munn | Jerome B. Couch | 3,589 | |
Prohibition Party | E. Harold Munn | Fred M. Burns | 3,578 | |
Prohibition Party | E. Harold Munn | Lois Goodwin | 3,523 | |
Prohibition Party | E. Harold Munn | Daisy Williams | 3,420 | |
Total votes | 1,049,909 |
County | George Wallace American Independent |
Hubert Humphrey Democratic |
Richard Nixon Republican |
Various candidates Other parties |
Margin | Total votes cast | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
# | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
Autauga | 5,523 | 71.03% | 1,553 | 19.97% | 606 | 7.79% | 94 | 1.21% | 3,970 | 51.06% | 7,776 |
Baldwin | 14,167 | 76.98% | 1,821 | 9.89% | 2,154 | 11.70% | 262 | 1.42% | 12,013[c] | 65.28% | 18,404 |
Barbour | 5,491 | 69.10% | 1,898 | 23.89% | 386 | 4.86% | 171 | 2.15% | 3,593 | 45.21% | 7,946 |
Bibb | 3,746 | 80.16% | 652 | 13.95% | 263 | 5.63% | 12 | 0.26% | 3,094 | 66.21% | 4,673 |
Blount | 6,536 | 71.93% | 331 | 3.64% | 2,013 | 22.15% | 206 | 2.27% | 4,523[c] | 49.78% | 9,086 |
Bullock | 2,161 | 49.71% | 1,964 | 45.18% | 190 | 4.37% | 32 | 0.74% | 197 | 4.53% | 4,347 |
Butler | 5,601 | 76.09% | 1,240 | 16.85% | 500 | 6.79% | 20 | 0.27% | 4,361 | 59.24% | 7,361 |
Calhoun | 19,211 | 71.75% | 4,146 | 15.48% | 3,061 | 11.43% | 357 | 1.33% | 15,065 | 56.27% | 26,775 |
Chambers | 7,885 | 74.14% | 1,358 | 12.77% | 1,082 | 10.17% | 311 | 2.92% | 6,527 | 61.37% | 10,636 |
Cherokee | 4,773 | 83.96% | 462 | 8.13% | 343 | 6.03% | 107 | 1.88% | 4,311 | 75.83% | 5,685 |
Chilton | 6,611 | 74.26% | 566 | 6.36% | 1,602 | 18.00% | 123 | 1.38% | 5,009[c] | 56.26% | 8,902 |
Choctaw | 4,250 | 69.75% | 1,641 | 26.93% | 176 | 2.89% | 26 | 0.43% | 2,609 | 42.82% | 6,093 |
Clarke | 6,168 | 71.50% | 1,717 | 19.90% | 488 | 5.66% | 253 | 2.93% | 4,451 | 51.60% | 8,626 |
Clay | 4,048 | 80.25% | 256 | 5.08% | 706 | 14.00% | 34 | 0.67% | 3,342[c] | 66.25% | 5,044 |
Cleburne | 3,314 | 82.95% | 160 | 4.01% | 485 | 12.14% | 36 | 0.90% | 2,829[c] | 70.81% | 3,995 |
Coffee | 8,885 | 82.53% | 1,071 | 9.95% | 682 | 6.33% | 128 | 1.19% | 7,814 | 72.58% | 10,766 |
Colbert | 11,341 | 72.60% | 2,291 | 14.67% | 1,727 | 11.06% | 262 | 1.68% | 9,050 | 57.93% | 15,621 |
Conecuh | 3,828 | 71.60% | 1,151 | 21.53% | 186 | 3.48% | 181 | 3.39% | 2,677 | 50.07% | 5,346 |
Coosa | 2,830 | 74.26% | 623 | 16.35% | 330 | 8.66% | 28 | 0.73% | 2,207 | 57.91% | 3,811 |
Covington | 11,419 | 86.98% | 791 | 6.03% | 831 | 6.33% | 87 | 0.66% | 10,588[c] | 80.65% | 13,128 |
Crenshaw | 4,513 | 82.35% | 726 | 13.25% | 209 | 3.81% | 32 | 0.58% | 3,787 | 69.10% | 5,480 |
Cullman | 11,063 | 64.08% | 1,115 | 6.46% | 4,964 | 28.75% | 123 | 0.71% | 6,099[c] | 35.33% | 17,265 |
Dale | 8,109 | 83.55% | 862 | 8.88% | 607 | 6.25% | 127 | 1.31% | 7,247 | 74.67% | 9,705 |
Dallas | 8,798 | 52.89% | 6,516 | 39.17% | 1,246 | 7.49% | 76 | 0.46% | 2,282 | 13.72% | 16,636 |
DeKalb | 8,144 | 54.81% | 1,274 | 8.57% | 5,314 | 35.76% | 127 | 0.85% | 2,830[c] | 19.05% | 14,859 |
Elmore | 9,038 | 76.52% | 1,745 | 14.77% | 801 | 6.78% | 228 | 1.93% | 7,293 | 61.75% | 11,812 |
Escambia | 8,474 | 78.72% | 1,492 | 13.86% | 680 | 6.32% | 119 | 1.11% | 6,982 | 64.86% | 10,765 |
Etowah | 21,416 | 68.67% | 4,613 | 14.79% | 4,351 | 13.95% | 806 | 2.58% | 16,803 | 53.88% | 31,186 |
Fayette | 4,683 | 75.07% | 676 | 10.84% | 827 | 13.26% | 52 | 0.83% | 3,856[c] | 61.81% | 6,238 |
Franklin | 5,909 | 64.96% | 588 | 6.46% | 2,524 | 27.75% | 75 | 0.82% | 3,385[c] | 37.21% | 9,096 |
Geneva | 7,871 | 91.73% | 380 | 4.43% | 284 | 3.31% | 46 | 0.54% | 7,491 | 87.30% | 8,581 |
Greene | 1,555 | 39.18% | 2,229 | 56.16% | 180 | 4.54% | 5 | 0.13% | -674 | -16.98% | 3,969 |
Hale | 2,934 | 55.78% | 2,003 | 38.08% | 266 | 5.06% | 57 | 1.08% | 931 | 17.70% | 5,260 |
Henry | 4,233 | 79.99% | 955 | 18.05% | 84 | 1.59% | 20 | 0.38% | 3,278 | 61.94% | 5,292 |
Houston | 13,872 | 83.89% | 1,488 | 9.00% | 974 | 5.89% | 202 | 1.22% | 12,384 | 74.89% | 16,536 |
Jackson | 8,504 | 77.96% | 1,022 | 9.37% | 1,191 | 10.92% | 191 | 1.75% | 7,313[c] | 67.04% | 10,908 |
Jefferson | 106,233 | 51.81% | 55,845 | 27.24% | 39,752 | 19.39% | 3,203 | 1.56% | 50,388 | 24.57% | 205,033 |
Lamar | 5,229 | 88.25% | 302 | 5.10% | 364 | 6.14% | 30 | 0.51% | 4,865[c] | 82.11% | 5,925 |
Lauderdale | 13,467 | 71.32% | 2,166 | 11.47% | 2,952 | 15.63% | 298 | 1.58% | 10,515[c] | 55.69% | 18,883 |
Lawrence | 6,253 | 83.05% | 650 | 8.63% | 580 | 7.70% | 46 | 0.61% | 5,603 | 74.42% | 7,529 |
Lee | 7,721 | 58.78% | 2,803 | 21.34% | 2,366 | 18.01% | 246 | 1.87% | 4,918 | 37.44% | 13,136 |
Limestone | 8,430 | 81.25% | 889 | 8.57% | 870 | 8.39% | 186 | 1.79% | 7,541 | 72.68% | 10,375 |
Lowndes | 1,822 | 55.84% | 1,127 | 34.54% | 234 | 7.17% | 80 | 2.45% | 695 | 21.30% | 3,263 |
Macon | 1,619 | 25.37% | 4,450 | 69.74% | 257 | 4.03% | 55 | 0.86% | -2,831 | -44.37% | 6,381 |
Madison | 29,823 | 57.40% | 8,004 | 15.41% | 13,213 | 25.43% | 913 | 1.76% | 16,610[c] | 31.97% | 51,953 |
Marengo | 5,185 | 56.64% | 3,479 | 38.01% | 457 | 4.99% | 33 | 0.36% | 1,706 | 18.63% | 9,154 |
Marion | 6,415 | 76.34% | 365 | 4.34% | 1,492 | 17.76% | 131 | 1.56% | 4,923[c] | 58.58% | 8,403 |
Marshall | 12,742 | 76.39% | 955 | 5.73% | 2,725 | 16.34% | 258 | 1.55% | 10,017[c] | 60.05% | 16,680 |
Mobile | 61,673 | 67.08% | 18,615 | 20.25% | 10,509 | 11.43% | 1,139 | 1.24% | 43,058 | 46.83% | 91,936 |
Monroe | 5,217 | 71.23% | 1,673 | 22.84% | 375 | 5.12% | 59 | 0.81% | 3,544 | 48.39% | 7,324 |
Montgomery | 27,202 | 58.47% | 12,088 | 25.98% | 6,746 | 14.50% | 489 | 1.05% | 15,114 | 32.49% | 46,525 |
Morgan | 16,841 | 75.60% | 1,878 | 8.43% | 3,043 | 13.66% | 515 | 2.31% | 13,798[c] | 61.94% | 22,277 |
Perry | 2,768 | 49.85% | 2,457 | 44.25% | 308 | 5.55% | 20 | 0.36% | 311 | 5.60% | 5,553 |
Pickens | 4,549 | 71.89% | 1,434 | 22.66% | 321 | 5.07% | 24 | 0.38% | 3,115 | 49.23% | 6,328 |
Pike | 6,038 | 72.39% | 1,565 | 18.76% | 658 | 7.89% | 80 | 0.96% | 4,473 | 53.63% | 8,341 |
Randolph | 5,103 | 75.00% | 666 | 9.79% | 839 | 12.33% | 196 | 2.88% | 4,264[c] | 62.67% | 6,804 |
Russell | 7,584 | 67.44% | 2,707 | 24.07% | 704 | 6.26% | 250 | 2.22% | 4,877 | 43.37% | 11,245 |
St. Clair | 7,050 | 72.70% | 869 | 8.96% | 1,635 | 16.86% | 143 | 1.47% | 5,415[c] | 55.84% | 9,697 |
Shelby | 7,736 | 71.83% | 1,105 | 10.26% | 1,706 | 15.84% | 223 | 2.07% | 6,030[c] | 55.99% | 10,770 |
Sumter | 2,158 | 44.89% | 2,336 | 48.60% | 303 | 6.30% | 10 | 0.21% | -178 | -3.71% | 4,807 |
Talladega | 13,505 | 72.00% | 3,099 | 16.52% | 1,935 | 10.32% | 217 | 1.16% | 10,406 | 55.48% | 18,756 |
Tallapoosa | 9,043 | 76.50% | 1,331 | 11.26% | 1,205 | 10.19% | 242 | 2.05% | 7,712 | 65.24% | 11,821 |
Tuscaloosa | 18,611 | 65.60% | 5,556 | 19.58% | 3,822 | 13.47% | 382 | 1.35% | 13,055 | 46.02% | 28,371 |
Walker | 14,416 | 74.37% | 1,971 | 10.17% | 2,628 | 13.56% | 370 | 1.91% | 11,788[c] | 60.81% | 19,385 |
Washington | 4,545 | 79.98% | 902 | 15.87% | 200 | 3.52% | 36 | 0.63% | 3,643 | 64.11% | 5,683 |
Wilcox | 2,511 | 56.62% | 1,658 | 37.38% | 237 | 5.34% | 29 | 0.65% | 853 | 19.24% | 4,435 |
Winston | 3,032 | 54.86% | 258 | 4.67% | 2,174 | 39.33% | 63 | 1.14% | 858[c] | 15.53% | 5,527 |
Totals | 691,425 | 65.86% | 196,579 | 18.72% | 146,923 | 13.99% | 14,990 | 1.42% | 494,846 | 47.14% | 1,049,917 |
This table shows the results by congressional district in Alabama. The candidate who was the winning candidate is listed first. George Wallace won all 8 congressional districts in Alabama.[21]
District[22] | Nixon | Humphrey | Wallace |
---|---|---|---|
1st | 9.8% | 21.4% | 68.8% |
2nd | 10.4% | 18.8% | 70.8% |
3rd | 7.7% | 18.6% | 73.7% |
4th | 11% | 16.6% | 72.4% |
5th | 10.3% | 27.9% | 61.8% |
6th | 23.5% | 28.6% | 48% |
7th | 20.2% | 8.8% | 71% |
8th | 17.4% | 12.5% | 70% |
Wallace won his home state in a landslide, receiving 65.86 percent of the vote to Democrat Hubert Humphrey's 18.72 percent, a 47.13-point margin. Republican Richard Nixon, while winning the election nationally, finished a distant third in Alabama with only 13.99 percent, gaining significant support only in a few northern counties with historical Unionist sympathies and higher-income urban areas.[23] Wallace's 65.86 percent of the popular vote would make Alabama not only his best-performing state in the 1968 election, but the strongest-performing state out of any candidate, with only Humphrey's performance in Washington D.C. being stronger.[24]
Wallace won 64 of the state's 67 counties. As African-Americans in the South were slowly gaining the right to vote as a result of federal civil rights legislation passed in 1964 and 1965, Wallace's weakest region was the Black Belt, where he won most counties with narrow majorities or pluralities.[25]
As of the 2024 presidential election[update], this is the last election in which Mobile County, Shelby County, Baldwin County, Lee County, and Houston County were not carried by the Republican candidate,[26] the last election in which the Republican candidate won the election without Alabama, and the last election in which Wilcox County, Lowndes County, and Bullock County were not carried by the national Democratic candidate.[26]