Alabama Secretary of State pushes to purge non-citizen voter files following election integrity concerns

MOBILE, Ala. ( WKRG ) — Statistics provided by the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office claimed that there are 3,251 non-citizens in the State of Alabama who have somehow registered to vote.

Secretary of State Wes Allen’s findings showed that the WKRG News 5 viewing area accounts for 17% of those non-citizens:

• Mobile County – 143
• Baldwin County – 143
• Escambia County – 17
• Monroe County – 9
• Conecuh County – 8
• Clarke County – 8
• Washington County – 1

Allen said that while non-citizens are in the United States legally, they are not classified as citizens, and therefore are not allowed to vote. Registering to vote as a non-citizen is illegal, according to Allen.

Allen could not offer an explanation on how the non-citizens managed to register to vote.

“Well, we’re still digging into the information that we have,” Allen said. “Number one, how did it happen and how long have they been registered to vote? Number two, did they vote as well?”

Allen said the legal non-citizens were given a “non-citizen identification” or “alien identification” from the Department of Homeland Security.

“Election integrity is a top priority, and only United States Citizens should be voting in our elections,” Allen said. “It is illegal for non-citizens, whether they be legal non-citizens or illegal immigrants to even try to attempt to register to vote.”

Although the federal government handed out the IDs, Allen said getting answers from them was not easy.

“It’s been an ongoing process with the federal government,” Allen said. “A lot of red tape and a lot of bureaucracy.”

Allen turned to State agencies to get the numbers.

“We cross-checked it against the centralized data file here that we keep in-house at the Secretary of State’s Office,” Allen said. “And then we showed that 3,251 non-citizens as being registered to vote.”

The process of fixing the issue has already started, according to Allen, who asked the Board of Registrars in all affected counties to inactivate the voter files pertaining to the non-citizens.

“It’s like daily hygiene. We always brush our teeth. We always take showers and wash our hair. That’s the same kind of concept with our voter files,” Allen said. “We want to make sure our voter files are the most up-to-date, the cleanest, and the most accurate.”

Allen sent his findings to the State Attorney General’s Office. Meanwhile, Allen’s office is investigating whether any of these non-citizens have actually voted in the past.

Allens’s request to purge voter files came less than three months before the November General Election. Allen said 3.8 million Alabamians are registered to vote, which is about 94% of the state’s voting-age population.

There are currently more than 316,000 registered voters in Mobile County, and close to 200,000 in Baldwin County.

While voter registration is high, turnout has been significantly lower with only 7.5% of registered voters casting their ballot in April’s Primary Runoff Election.

Oct. 21 is the deadline to register to vote in Alabama.

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