Carl Projected Winner In AL House District 1 Election

MOBILE, AL — For the first time since 2014, Alabama's 1st Congressional District will have a new representative in Washington after Tuesday's election. Mobile businessman Jerry Carl has been projected the winner by the Associated Press and the New York Times.

Incumbent Bradley Byrne opted not to seek re-election, following an unsuccessful run for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, opening the door for Democrat James Averhart and Republican Jerry Carl to fill the seat.

Results for the U.S. House of Representatives AL-1 race as of 10:45 p.m.:

James Averhart: 90,348 votes

Jerry Carl: 193,231 votes

Carl is a Mobile native and longtime businessman in the community, and has started more than 10 different companies ranging from real estate to healthcare and timber, to the manufacturing of church furniture. He has aligned his campaign with Pres. Donald Trump and has adopted Trump's platform.

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Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill said voter turnout in Alabama looks to be close to 70 percent, higher than the 63 percent the state reported in the 2016 election, and much more than the 30 percent in the primaries this year.

Merrill also said absentee voting requests had passed 300,000 before Thursday's application deadline. More than 240,000 absentee ballots have been returned.

Absentee ballots received by the day of the election Nov. 3 will be opened for tabulation beginning at 7 a.m. that day, according to an order announced by Gov. Kay Ivey in September.

"I commend Governor Ivey for making the wise decision to allow for the processing of absentee ballots to begin at 7 a.m. on Election Day," Merrill said. "This accommodates the anticipated increase of absentee ballots and ensures that Alabama will continue to provide timely, unofficial election results on election night."