Siegelman dismisses similarities between his 2002 gubernatorial election, Trump’s 2020 presidential election

In his political memoir, “Stealing Our Democracy,” former Gov. Don Siegelman offers details of his claim he had his 2002 gubernatorial reelection bid thwarted after an apparent “computer glitch” cost him some 6,000 votes in Baldwin County.

The winner, then-U.S. Rep. Bob Riley, the GOP nominee, defeated the incumbent Democrat governor by 3,120 votes, less than one-quarter of 1% of all the votes cast. To this day, Siegelman insists he would have won the election had it not been for what he alleges happened at the Baldwin County Courthouse in Bay Minette on election night in 2002.

As the country continues to grapple with the apparent outcome of last Tuesday’s presidential election with former Vice President Joe Biden reportedly emerging as the victor and incumbent President Donald Trump and his campaign questioning the election processes that have given Biden the edge, Siegelman dismissed the existence of any similarities in the two elections.

During an appearance on FM Talk 106.5’s “The Jeff Poor Show” in Mobile, Siegelman argued the difference was votes were subtracted from his end total to give Riley the win, which he said was not the case for Trump.

“In my election in 2002, I had won the election,” he explained. “The votes that were posted in Baldwin County showed that I had enough votes to win statewide. And after everybody was chased out of the courthouse, after the media was dismissed, the political observers from both political parties were escorted out of the courthouse. In four minutes after they left, a new set of returns was posted that simply subtracted 6,200 of my votes, which swung the election to my opponent. What was the indicator was the Attorney General [William Pryor] would not allow a hand recount of this one precinct where votes disappeared. He, a Republican and a Republican Attorney General, seized the ballots, the cassette, the computer — took everything to Montgomery and then engaged in an unlawful certification of the votes, which gave the election to Bob Riley.”

“None of that is evident in this presidential campaign,” Siegelman added. “We are still waiting on President Trump’s lawyers to produce evidence that there was anything wrong with the election totals in any state that would make a difference in the outcome of the election. So, while I’m not saying that elections can’t be stolen — I’m saying that this presidential election was not.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.