Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen testifies before U.S. Senate on election integrity

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules on Tuesday regarding election administration and integrity. Since entering office a little over a year ago, Allen has placed high priority on ensuring fair and accountable elections.

“Voter registration and voter file maintenance are the foundation of election integrity,” said Allen. “Registered voters can choose to participate in elections in Alabama with the confidence that our elections process is fair and secure because Alabama has taken solid steps in our state to ensure election integrity.”

Allen went into specifics about steps that have been taken in Alabama to strengthen the voting process.

“We have enacted legislation in Alabama that makes it illegal for any voting tabulator to be connected to the internet,” he said. “Alabama state law requires the use of paper ballots in all elections. Each of our voters must verify their identity with photo identification at his or her polling place. If a voter does not have a valid photo ID for voting purposes, my office will send someone to the location of their choice, even their home, to issue them a voter ID, upon request.”

He also discussed legislation that he brought forward as a member of the Alabama House that ensures elections are free from any outside corrupting influence.

“When I served in the Alabama House of Representatives, I sponsored and passed legislation which prohibits private individuals or organizations from purchasing election tabulators, ballots or supplies and prohibits those same entities from paying election administration officials or their staffs.”

According to Allen, proper voter file maintenance is also vital to instilling and preserving confidence in elections.

“Just this year, I, with the help of the dedicated team at Alabama’s Office of Secretary of State, established the Alabama Voter Integrity Database … AVID,” said Allen. “For the first time in our state’s history, we have been approved to directly cross check our voter file with the national death master index maintained by the Social Security Administration so that when an Alabama voter dies in another state, we are able to identify and remove that individual from our voter file.”

Allen said that federal red tape makes it difficult for other states to remove deceased voters from their databases — but Congress can change that.

“Immediately removing deceased Alabamians from our voter file not only instills confidence but also allows us to maintain a more accurate voter file. Every state should be able to do this, but excessive federal regulations make it more difficult than it should be for states to access this important information.”

“You, as members of the United States Senate, can remove those obstacles and make this information immediately available to every Secretary of State in this nation.”

Last year, the Secretary removed Alabama from the national voting database known as ERIC, and instead created and implemented the Alabama Voter Integrity Database or AVID.

“AVID also enables us to work with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to receive notifications of Alabama licensed drivers over the age of 18 who have received a driver’s license in another state,” said Allen. “Additionally, by comparing the National Change of Address database maintained by the United States Postal Service to our voter file, we identify registered Alabama voters who have requested to have their mail forwarded due to moving to a location outside of our state.”

“For the first time in our state’s history, we have entered into agreements with each of our border states allowing us to identify people who are registered to vote in Alabama and in a border state.”

He explained in detail how AVID works.

“Voters who are identified as possibly relocating through any of these methods receive a mailer from their county Board of Registrars asking them to confirm their relocation or update their Alabama voter registration information. To date, we have, through AVID, identified 109,709 Alabama voters who have likely relocated outside of the state.”

“But, unlike deceased voters, we can not immediately remove them from the Alabama voter file. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993, also known as NVRA, mandates that we wait four years to make such a removal.”

Allen offered one major recommendation to the lawmakers that he believes will greatly increase voters trust.

“If I could make a recommendation to this body to increase confidence in our elections, it would be to shorten the four-year waiting period mandated by the NVRA, especially considering the fact that state to state movers account for 19.9% of all relocations according to the US Census Bureau. The four year waiting period allows an individual to remain in a voter file in a state in which they no longer live for several elections including:

A Presidential election
A US Senate election
A gubernatorial election
2 congressional elections
Mayoral election
County commission elections
State house and Senate elections
Judicial elections.

“Four years is, quite frankly, too long,” Allen said.

“Amending the NVRA to shorten the four-year waiting period would certainly increase voter confidence, decrease bloated voter files, and result in more accurate voter files across the nation.”

Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News.