Secretary of State Wes Allen delivers testimony before U.S. Senate
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Special to the News
Secretary of State Wes Allen testified before and answered the questions of members of the U.S. Senate on the topic of election administration and integrity Tuesday, March 12.
Alabama’s own Sen. Katie Britt introduced Secretary Allen to the committee.
“I was honored to introduce my friend, Secretary of State Wes Allen, at this week’s hearing and was thrilled to have him represent our great state at this important committee hearing. I’ll continue to fight on the federal level to strengthen election integrity nationwide,” said Sen. Britt.
Britt then asked Secretary Allen to explain the tools available to election officials to guarantee that only United States citizens are registering to vote or voting in our elections.
“The simple answer is that we do not have anything at our disposal to verify citizenship,” explained Allen. “Back in December, we asked the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services for a list of noncitizens so we could cross-check our voter file in Alabama. We were denied that list from the federal government.”
In response to the secretary of state’s office’s request for a list of noncitizens, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services directed this office to use the Systematic Alien Verification Entitlements (SAVE) program to verify citizenship. However, SAVE explicitly states that it is not to be used to verify citizenship for the purposes of voter registration.
Secretary Allen concluded his answer to Sen. Britt’s question with the following statement, “The federal government and the federal courts have blocked previous efforts by states to verify citizenship, and I think that it is important now more than ever, especially given what is happening at our southern border.”
Secretary Allen’s written testimony has been made available here: www.rules.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/allen_testimony.pdf.
The full text of Secretary Allen’s oral testimony may be found here: www.sos.alabama.gov/newsroom/alabama-secretary-state-wes-allen-oral-testimony-united-states-senate.
Wes Allen is Alabama’s fifty-fourth secretary of state. The secretary of state is Alabama’s chief elections official. Additionally, Alabama law gives the secretary of state more than 1,000 different duties. To learn more about the secretary of state and his responsibilities and duties visit www.sos.alabama.gov.