Alabama Secretary of State candidate Caroleene Dobson thinks that more work needs to be done to secure elections in the Yellowhammer State.

Dobson, a Montgomery real estate attorney and former Republican nominee for U.S. Congress, discussed an election integrity plan Wednesday on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program.”

“[A]s a candidate in a highly contested general election I witnessed firsthand where we still have a lot of work to do when it comes to election integrity,” Dobson said. “We are, no doubt, far better than our neighbors to the east, in Georgia, and we have some great laws on the books, some of which have just been passed in the past few years. So very grateful for that, but there’s always room for improvement, and there’s still so much we can do when it comes to building trust in our elections well.”

Dobson has been campaigning on the need to create an Election Security Division within the Secretary of State’s Office.

“Florida has a similar concept that they created back in 2022,” she explained. “It’s a branch of their Secretary of State’s office that they call an Election Crimes Unit. But I would like to create an election integrity division within the office of Secretary of State. So these are dedicated professionals; an election law expert, a cyber security expert, so when there is an allegation of election fraud, there’s a direct chain of command. There is a branch of the office that that can be reported to, and people that are standing by to immediately follow up on that claim, investigate.”

The candidate believes this will streamline the process when it comes to actually enforcing election laws already on the books.

“So often, people you know, think they’ve witnessed election fraud, and then don’t know where to report it to,” she said. “They may report it to a local Sheriff’s office, and we have some of the finest law enforcement there is, don’t get me wrong, but you can imagine Sheriff’s Office, especially, you know, in a rural county or in an urban county that has a lot of fires to put out.”

“So I think having a centralized way to investigate these claims will better let the people of this state know that they can have trust in our elections,” she added, “and also let people know who are thinking about trying to pull a fast one, that there’s going to be someone who’s going to be following up and and they will be caught, and they will be punished.”

Dobson is one of three Republicans currently seeking the office. Her primary opponents are Christian Horn and Glenda S. Jackson.

The Republican primary election is set for May 19.

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee