AL: Only Twisters Are at the Polls

By Darryl Fears
Despite forecasts of thunderstorms and possibly tornadoes as the night wears on, Alabama voters were turning out in droves, officials in the state elections office said. By noon, 20 percent of registered voters in Montgomery County had voted, matching the county's total in the 2004 primary.

The Birmingham News called it a historic vote because for the first time Alabama voters went to the polls with the outcome undecided in both party primaries. In the final polls, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee were running neck-and-neck on the Republican side, and Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) was leading Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) by a few percentage points among Democrats.

Temperatures across the state are as hot as the voting, and people in Alabama know that when it's hot in winter, violent weather that spawns twisters is often not far behind. As of 5 p.m., however, when a voter surge was expected as workers started to head home, the larger cities of Birmingham and Montgomery were sunny.

Secretary of State Beth Chapman predicted a turnout of 31 percent to 33 percent, but that was before the forecasts.