Truth matters: Alabama’s voter rolls
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Thoughts from John H. Merrill
This Morning in Alabama
President Abraham Lincoln said, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”
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, Allen has repeatedly mischaracterized both my tenure and the work of the professionals in the Secretary of State’s Office.
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.
But recent statements in his Congressional testimony compel me to set the record straight.
In his testimony before the Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Elections, Secretary Allen alleged, “Our voter file, which was a bloated mess on the day I took office, is now the most accurate record of eligible voters our state has ever had.” This same language appeared in a February 2025 press release from his office.
Let me be clear: this statement doesn’t just disparage my administration – it disrespects the dedicated registrars and elections professionals who worked tirelessly to ensure our elections were secure. Many of those individuals worked in that capacity before me, and many continue to serve today.
Their work helped Alabama achieve the distinction of being ranked number one in the nation in election security by the University of Southern California, the Concerned Women for Good Government and The Heritage Foundation in 2021 for the first time in the history of the State of Alabama. This designation also led to my selection as chair of the National Commission on Election Integrity following the 2020 election.
Regarding his new system, Alabama Voter Integrity Database (AVID) – the state’s replacement for the multi-state Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) – Secretary Allen claims it enabled the removal of more than half a million ineligible voters. He further asserts that since taking office, his administration has identified more than a million names for removal or updates to their information.
Here’s what that narrative leaves out.
AVID, as described, is a “four-pronged system” that includes a cooperative agreement with the (1) Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the use of the (2) USPS National Change of Address File, the use of (3) Social Security death data, and (4) agreements with other states to identify individuals registered in multiple jurisdictions.
All four components were already in place and being used alongside ERIC under my administration; as a matter of fact, number 1 and number 4 were introduced to the state by my administration and under the purview of the registrars.
What’s been presented as a new innovation is, in large part, a repackaging of longstanding procedures. One of the things that membership in ERIC provided was the identification and potential investigation of dual voting participation by registered voters in member states in the same election cycle.
This is not a feature that is included in AVID. This information has been verified by the secretaries of state who have signed MOUs with Alabama.
Let’s now examine the numbers.
On my first day in office – January 19, 2015 – Alabama had 2,992,062 registered voters. On my last day in office – January 15, 2023 – Alabama had 3,702,689 registered voters.
During my eight years as secretary of state, we registered 2,215,229 new voters, and 1,504,602 names were removed from the voter list. Those names were removed because the registered voter had moved out of state, passed away, or been convicted of a disqualifying felony.
As of this writing, according to the secretary of state’s website, Alabama has 3,769,586 registered voters – an increase of 66,897 in just over two years.
If Secretary Allen truly removed 500,000 ineligible voters, the total number of registered voters would have dropped to approximately 3,269,586. And yet, the voter rolls show an increase, not a decrease.
To reach the current number, the current administration would have needed to register at least 566,897 new voters since January 2023.
That claim defies logic, so show the people the names.
Furthermore, under Alabama law, only the state’s 201 county registrars are authorized to add or remove individuals from the voter rolls, not the secretary of state. So when Allen claims he added or removed voters, whether one or one million, to or from the voter rolls, this is being disingenuous or intentionally misleading.
According to the Code and Constitution of Alabama, the secretary of state does not have that ability or authorization to add or remove voters from the Alabama voter rolls.
Between January 2015 and January 2023, Alabama averaged approximately 276,000 new voter registrations per year. And that was during a time of active outreach by the Secretary of State’s Office – when we traveled to all 67 counties every year; set up registration drives at schools, parks, fairs, community events; and ran public service campaigns featuring prominent Alabamians such as Coach Nick Saban, Coach Gus Malzahn, Charles Barkley, Dr. Mae Jemison, the Women of the Alabama Legislature, Jimmy Buffett, Lionel Richie, President Donald Trump, and many others across television, radio and digital media.
It strains credibility to suggest that this administration more than doubled that average, without launching any similar, large-scale voter registration initiatives.
Quite simply, the math does not add up.
The truth matters – not only to preserve the integrity of the record, but to honor the public servants who worked faithfully to keep our elections accurate, secure and fair. Misrepresenting their efforts and distorting the facts for political narrative serves no one – not the state, not the voters and certainly not the truth.
John H. Merrill served in the Alabama House of Representatives from 2010-2014 and as Alabama’s 53rd secretary of state from 2015-2023.
