Nick Saban for Public Office? Alabamians Who Wrote in PSC Candidates Had a Certain Twinkle in Their Eye

MONTGOMERY, Ala.—Alabama Public Service Commission President Twinkle Cavanaugh didn’t have much to worry about on election day. She ran unopposed because Democrats didn’t nominate a challenger for the state’s primary utility regulator. Still, more than 40,000 Alabamians chose to write in a different candidate, the most of any office in the state.

Across Alabama, there were 41,907 write-in votes cast against her, around 2.66 percent of all ballots. That’s higher than the number of write-ins for statewide judgeships, board of education seats and various congressional races. Even the race for president of the United States drew fewer write-in votes (8,720 votes, or 0.39 percent of ballots cast).

Cavanaugh also fared worse in areas serviced by Alabama Power, which includes nearly all of 54 counties across the state. Write-ins were fewer in areas served by the Tennessee Valley Authority, a publicly-owned utility with lower residential energy costs.

Inside Climate News spoke with political scientists about write-in voting in Alabama and with voters around the state who chose to write in a candidate against the incumbent Republican, who’s often criticized for her perceived relationship with Alabama Power, the state’s largest utility.

Cavanaugh’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the write-in votes against her. 

Why Write-Ins?

Andrea Eckelman, a political scientist at the University of Montevallo in central Alabama, said that Alabama is somewhat unique in allowing write-in votes, which can often be an administrative headache for election officials. 

“Especially in this world where election officials are already a little beleaguered, write-in voting can make matters a little challenging, which is why some states just ban the practice outright,” she said. 

Nevada, Oklahoma, Louisiana and South Dakota completely bar write-in votes, according to the Election Assistance Commission. Mississippi only allows write-ins if the candidate from a given party dies, resigns or withdraws. 

Even in Alabama, write-in voting is not permitted in municipal races, and in 2016, legislators changed state law to allow local election officials to effectively ignore write-ins unless there are enough such votes to conceivably change the race’s outcome. 

And that possibility—that a write-in candidate would actually win an election—is a rarity, though not completely unheard of. 

In 1983, due to a redistricting debacle, Democratic politician Lowell Barron was forced off the ballot in his bid for a state senate seat, leaving him only the possibility of running as a write-in candidate. 

Barron had thousands of small pencils branded with a catchy slogan: “Write Out Special Interests, Write in Lowell Barron.”

The tactic worked, with Barron winning the race with around 7,500 votes to his opponent’s 5,100. He was the first and the only candidate to win a state office in Alabama with only write-in support. 

So despite rare wins, why do people still write-in candidates?

Eckelman said that choosing to write in a specific candidate is a way for voters to express dissatisfaction with the options listed on the ballot or with the electoral system in general. 

“I think you have people frustrated in both parties, and so a higher number of write-ins indicates to me that broad frustration with no real way to express it,” she said. 

Writing in a candidate was the only way for voters to express their dissatisfaction with most candidates on the November ballot simply because Democrats in the state did not field candidates in the vast majority of races, Eckelman said. Only one statewide race, for chief justice, included a Democratic candidate, 66 percent to 34 percent. In all others—nearly a dozen races—voters were faced with two choices: Vote for the unopposed Republican or write in their own candidate. 

David A. Hughes, a political science professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, said in an interview that in-fighting within the Alabama Democratic Party has for years limited its ability to train and recruit quality candidates for statewide offices. 

“The Democrats are running a very lean operation, and they don’t really seem to be showing signs that they have any desire to change that,” he said. “And to the extent that they seem to be politically active, it would seem that it’s the national Democratic Party that they want to pick their fights with.”

In recent years, factions within the Alabama Democratic Party leadership have often butted heads with the national party, which forced changes to allow for the continued representation of various minority groups within the party’s governing body. 

One of the party’s only recent successes, Hughes noted, was in gaining an additional congressional seat, a victory that only came to pass because of a group of Alabama voters’ successful legal challenge of the state legislature’s gerrymandering. 

So with a lack of Democratic candidates to challenge Republican domination up and down the ballot, write-in votes can become the only way for voters to channel their opposition, Hughes and Eckelman said. 

“It’s a purely symbolic act,” Hughes said. “It just lets people vent.”

The Trouble With Twinkle

Eckelman and Hughes agreed that rising energy prices could be one of the driving forces behind write-ins against Cavanaugh. 

“I think one concern voters have is a general perception that the Public Service Commission is in the pocket of Alabama Power,” Eckelman said. “So I think people who are dissatisfied with their energy bills going up are saying, ‘Well, this Public Service Commission has the power to stop this, and they aren’t.’”

Alabama Power did not respond to a request for comment or answer questions about voters’ perceptions of energy prices. 

“We asked voters a billion times leading up to this election: ‘What’s the most important issue to you?’” Hughes said. “And they told us time and time again—inflation.”

And electricity is a necessary service with no competition to allow customers to shop around.

“It’s not really optional,” Hughes said. “In Alabama, you need your air conditioner. A refrigerator isn’t really something you can go without. So you feel like you’re hostage to energy prices.”

The impacts of climate change also factor into that reality. 

“In a really hot summer when the temperature is over 100 degrees for weeks on end, you have to run that air conditioner, and you don’t get to negotiate the price,” Hughes said. “Alabama Power is a state-managed monopoly, and Cavanaugh is the leader of the bureaucratic agency tasked with regulating it.” 

An Inside Climate News review of election results also shows that the number of write-in votes against Cavanaugh was around 35 percent higher in counties served by Alabama Power versus those in the northern part of the state served by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a publicly owned utility. Hughes said this difference in the share of protest votes against Cavanaugh across these areas suggests that opposition to the incumbent may be driven by elevated energy prices. 

Residential energy rates for Alabama Power are around 12.87 cents per kilowatt hour while rates in TVA-serviced areas are around 11.40 cents, according to company figures. 

Who Voters Wrote In and Why

Once voters decide they will write-in a candidate, who they choose to write-in can vary wildly, making successful write-ins even more unlikely. 

“It’s called a coordination problem,” Hughes said. “Everybody could want the same thing. We don’t want the incumbent, but if we can’t coordinate on an alternative, it makes it virtually impossible for that to happen.”

But winning often isn’t the explicit goal of write-ins—it’s the sentiment that matters: The candidate or candidates listed on the ballots just won’t cut it, according to Hughes and Eckelman

Inside Climate News asked voters in Alabama who they chose to write in and why. Here’s a sample of their answers. 

Nick Saban was the most frequent write-in among voters who responded to Inside Climate News. Sandra Knisely Barnidge said she wrote-in the former University of Alabama football coach as a way of loose coordination with other voters. 

“I wrote-in Nick Saban because I figured he’d get the most write-ins, and, well, maybe he’s open to new opportunities right now?”

Nic Gulas, too, voted for Saban. 

“I voted for Nick Saban, only because I couldn’t think on my toes well enough, and I needed to actively vote against the woman who has done nothing to hinder Alabama Power’s rate increases all the while jumping in on culture war bullshit that doesn’t concern her job in the least.”

Kelsey McClure felt the same way. 

“I felt it was important to vote against her so that even though she will win on down ballot majority,” she said, she would get the message “that there are people in this state who oppose her and will literally write in Frankenstein than to have her run any state affairs.” 

Marcie Smith was among multiple voters who said they wrote in former U.S. Senator from Alabama Doug Jones.

“I voted for Mickey Mouse,” said voter Freddy Wheeler. “At least he only cost me if I go to his place. Twinkle cost me every day in mine.” 

“I needed to actively vote against the woman who has done nothing to hinder Alabama Power’s rate increases…”

— Nic Gulas

Voter Matthew Fraser said he cast his write-in for Tuscaloosa’s Democratic mayor Walt Maddox. 

“Twinkle Cavanaugh has been a rubber stamp for Alabama power rate increases while they continue to post huge profits and when Alabamians need financial relief the most,” he said.

Voter Alan Friday said he wrote in his daughter, Grace: “She’d be tougher on those regulated by a mile.”

Multiple voters said they wrote in Daniel Tait, a sustainable energy advocate and executive director of Energy Alabama. 

Several voters also said they explicitly wrote in “Anyone but Twinkle.”

But it will take more than uncoordinated write-in votes to throw Cavanaugh out of office, Hughes and Eckelman said. It will take, at a minimum, an actual opponent. 

Dennis Pillion contributed to this report.