Wes Allen, John Merrill's war of words over Alabama voter rolls goes nuclear

On Sunday evening, former Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill syndicated an op-ed column entitled “Truth Matters – Alabama’s Voter Rolls” to news outlets.

In the column, Merrill criticized current Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen’s portrayal of the state’s voter file as a “bloated mess” prior to his tenure and accused Allen of “intentionally misleading” the public about the state’s voter registration system.

The rare and pointed public rebuke by a former elected official marks the most public instance of Merrill and Allen’s political conflict, which flared up recently on a television news interview, in which Merrill questioned Allen’s political ambition and said “the jury is still out” on him.

Allen, who assumed office in January 2023, withdrew Alabama from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), citing privacy concerns and vulnerabilities to political influence. He introduced the Alabama Voter Integrity Database (AVID) as a state-based alternative, asserting that it has identified over one million voter records for updates or removal, including approximately 500,000 ineligible voters.

Merrill wrote in his column that Allen has “overstated” his efforts in doing so and that “the math does not add up” on AVID’s implementation. He accused Allen of “distorting the facts for political narrative.”

“Until now, I have refrained from commenting or opening the door to counter-criticisms in response to the derogatory comments made about me and my administration by Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen. Since taking office in 2023, Secretary Allen has repeatedly mischaracterized both my tenure and the work of the professionals in the Secretary of State’s Office,” Merrill wrote.

“He has overstated his efforts in ‘clearing up’ the voter rolls, inflating numbers, and presenting a misleading picture of the state’s voter rolls. I’ve stayed silent, not because I lacked a response, but because I believe facts speak louder than rhetoric.”

On Monday morning, Secretary Allen fired back.

“While I, along with most Alabamians, were spending time with our families and fellow church members on Easter Sunday, John Merrill was busy sending out an unsolicited email littered with lies and attacks on my office and my character,” Sec. Allen said in a statement to Yellowhammer News.

“Unfortunately, it is not surprising that a man whose time in office was marked by obscene sodomy scandals and repeated lies to the people that he was elected to serve, would not hesitate to press send on a false statement. It is not shocking that a man who, as Alabama’s Republican Secretary of State, travelled to have his picture made with the leftist radical Bernie Sanders and to visit Russia and China would go to desperate lengths to defend a liberal organization, the Electronic Registration Information Center. It is not out of character for a man that used his office in our state Capitol to hold video calls with government officials from the People’s Republic of China to craft false propaganda while most of us are spending our day in worship.”

“This is just the latest shameful action of a former public official who embarrassed our state when he was in office,” Allen said, referencing a number of public controversies that Merrill endured during his tenure as Secretary of State between 2015 and 2023.

“The truth is since taking office as Secretary of State on January 16, 2023, Alabama has registered 591,915 new voters, 25,018 more new registrations than Merrill claimed in his mistake-ridden email. This was done with the hard work of the Boards of Registrars in 67 counties,” Allen said.

Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.