Merrill urges consistency in elections — ‘We don’t want the federal government telling us what to do’

Coming out of last Tuesday’s presidential election and Saturday’s call of Joe Biden as the winner by the media, there has been chatter about government at the federal and state levels acting to shore up the public’s confidence in our election systems.

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, the state’s chief election official, warns against a top-heavy approach from the federal government and says the key tenet is consistency.

During an interview with Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5, Merrill discussed how he had to work to create consistency within the state.

“One thing we recommend is each state being consistent in the governing of its election system,” Merrill explained. “And that each state makes sure that each local jurisdiction follows those standards across the board. For example, in Alabama, it needs to be consistent in all 67 counties, and it is. When we came here, that was not the case. That was not the case in voter registration. We had people that were refused the ability to become registered voters because of crimes of moral turpitude that had been considered, and we did not have a definition of moral turpitude, so we went to the legislature. It took two years to pass a bill, but we were able to get it done, and it became law. That enabled us to be consistent in the administration of the voter rolls, addition and deletion. That’s what you have to have. We don’t have that in all 50 states now.”

“What we don’t in Alabama because we have these conversations all the time and I’ve testified before Congress three times in the last 18 months about this issue — we don’t want the federal government telling us what to do when it comes to our election systems. And we need to be consistent in that because if we don’t want them telling us what to do when things are going our way, we don’t want them telling us what to do when things are not going our way, either. So, we need to make sure we’re consistent in our position. But that’s what we’re seeing right now — is certain states behaving certain ways because they’re allowed to do so.”

Merrill reminded listeners he had testified against the federal government expanding its role in state election processes.

“Congressman [Gary] Palmer and Congressman [Mo] Brooks have both been vocal so far in talking about that very issue,” he said. “And yet, they have joined me along with Congressman [Mike] Rogers in pushing back against federal overreach in the federal elections process. That is why I was up there, testifying. That’s why I’ve been the guest, not just of the Alabama delegation but other members of Congress from other parts of the nation, talking about this issue, making sure we were pushing back in a way that enabled us to be strong in our position because the empirical data backed it up. So, again we need to be consistent in why we want certain standards to be in place.”

As for the possibility of the Alabama Legislature intervening, especially as Alabamians are having concerns about election integrity, Merrill maintained it was the duty of his office to offer the best information on election practices.

“I think there will be a number of elected officials and elected official hopefuls that would be trying to find a way to take advantage of this particular information at this particular time and use it for their advantage,” Merrill said. “What is incumbent on us to do is make sure we are prepared to ensure the members of the Alabama Legislature are informed about those issues and topics so that they will know what they need to consider and why the empirical data and the evidence says about the best practices regarding those issues.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.