Many who disliked Roy Moore and Doug Jones may have voted for a football coach

Thousands of people couldn’t bring themselves to vote for either Democrat Doug Jones or Republican Roy Moore in Tuesday’s Alabama Senate race, so they wrote in someone else.

That’s why Alabama head football coach Nick Saban could plausibly finish third in the election.

Write-ins may have been the difference

Jones beat Moore by fewer than 21,000 votes. Nearly 23,000 people cast write-in ballots.

Saban has often shown up on write-in ballots in Alabama, as one of the most prominent figures in the state and the highest-paid employee.

Adding to the Saban “campaign” was Democratic super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, which published a video showing people how to write-in a candidate. The sample name? Nick Saban.

How many people voted for Saban?

We don’t know yet who all the write-in votes were for, but because the number of write-ins exceeded the margin of victory, all write-in votes will be counted.

Either way, sounds like Saban already has a solid base if he ever decides to pursue a political career.

Other voting tidbits

From The Washington Post:

• Doug Jones won 96 percent of the black vote.
• Roy Moore won 68 percent of the white vote.
• Moore won 80 percent of people who approve of President Donald Trump.
• Moore won 80 percent of evangelical Christians, while Jones won 76 percent of those who don’t identify as evangelical.
• Fewer than one out of every 10 voters said the sexual misconduct allegations against Moore were an important factor.