Alabama GOP sends voter registration forms with political mailers; Secretary of State disapproves

John Wahl, the chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, speaks before a fundraiser for the party on Aug. 4, 2023. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector)

The Alabama Republican Party has mailed out voter registration forms attached to political mailers, a practice the Alabama Secretary of State, a Republican, said he disagrees with.

The political mailers contain conservative messaging asking residents to “stand against the woke agenda destroying America,” with examples underneath such as “Liberal Indoctrination of Our Children” and “Out-of-Control Border Crisis.” Under the list and next to the voter registration form, the mailer says, “Your Vote Matters, Register Today.” The Reflector reviewed a mailer sent in the Mobile area.

Secretary of State Wes Allen said in a statement that it’s common for various groups to put the office as the addressee on voter registration mailers, but that he does not agree with the practice.

“I want to assure Alabamians, as I have in the past, the best place to register to vote is your local Boards of Registrar office or at the official website of the Secretary of State,” he said.

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John Wahl, chair of the Alabama Republican Party, said in a statement on Thursday voter participation is “incredibly important to the Alabama Republican Party” and that the party wants to ensure that all eligible voters are registered.

“Elections have consequences and we want to make sure every Alabamian has their voice heard on November 5 th ,” he said in a statement.

The mailer also included an envelope indicating the addressee, the Alabama Secretary of State’s office, will pay for the postage, but Wahl said in a text message the party is paying for the postage.

Laney Rawls, a spokesperson for the office, said the language indicating addressee will pay for postage is language from the United States Postal Service.

“Our voter registration forms do not have that language on them, nor are they pre-paid,” Rawls said.

Matthew Barnidge, a University of Alabama journalism and creative media professor with a focus on political communication, said that could be a form of voter suppression if mailers are targeting and mobilizing voters of one political leaning through misinformation.

Groups that use suppression tactics, he said, are taking advantage of “false narratives,” such as the belief in the myth of voter fraud in the 2020 election, to mobilize one subset of voters through misinformation, and selective voter mobilization, combined with other tactics, can substantially affect the outcomes of down-ballot races across the state.

He pointed to an announcement from the Secretary of State’s office in which Allen warned voters of a group sending “targeted, partisan tactics” of sending “misleading, unsolicited mailers targeting Alabama mailboxes.”

“Tactics that selectively encourage one group of people to register and not another group of people could be viewed as a form of voter suppression along the same lines,” he said.

Randy Kelley, chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party, said that while sending voter registration forms with political mailers doesn’t seem wrong, they prefer to talk to voters.

“We have canvassed folks. We’ve called them. Visited the sick and shut in and went door to door and tried to get people to register,” he said.

When asked if it could be viewed as voter suppression, like Barnidge indicated, he said that “it probably is,” accusing Republicans of being “crooked.”

“They have never been fair and just when it comes down to dealing with voting. Period. They fought harder than any other state in the nation to keep Black people from voting,” he said.

But Wahl said he feels that voters will identify with the message included in the mailers, saying that the Democratic Party “have failed the people of Alabama and America.” Republicans have been in charge of state government since 2009.

“We believe new registered voters will agree with the Republican Party’s principles of securing our borders, rebuilding our economy, and protecting our children from woke indoctrination,” he said.

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Updated at 9:35 a.m. with photos of the mailer.