Sewell Asks AL Sec Of State: ‘What Percentage Of The Voters...You Purged Were Actually US Citizens?’

4/9/2025

During Tuesday’s House Administration Committee hearing, Rep Terri Sewell (D-AL) questioned Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen about efforts to purge voters.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to welcome to the nation's capital my

00:04Secretary of State, Wes Allen. Sir, you mentioned in your testimony that the

00:09foundation of election integrity is voter maintenance and I know that you

00:15mentioned that you withdrew Alabama from the ERIC organization and replaced it

00:21with AVID, a vote Alabama voter integrity database to partner with state

00:29agencies to identify individuals to purge from the rolls. Last year, you led an

00:34effort to clean the rolls in Alabama by directing the Department, the Board of

00:38Registrar, to remove registered voters that were, quote, non-citizen identification

00:43number, end quote, by the Department of Homeland Security. Shortly after

00:49implementing this purge, a group of civil rights organizations challenged Sir, your

00:53voter purging program in court. And do you know, sir, what percentage of voters that

01:01you purge were actually U.S. citizens and should be eligible to vote versus not being

01:06eligible? Well, we're extremely proud that, I'm extremely proud of my staff who work

01:10to implement this program and I will say that... Sir, it was 93%, 93.8% of the 3,251

01:20voters that were purged from the rolls were actually U.S. citizens and should have

01:25been eligible to vote. Federal courts have acknowledged that relying solely on

01:30databases like the State Department of Homeland Security, state DMV databases, and

01:36the federal systemic alien verification for entitlement database can, quote, have a

01:42very high rate of inaccuracy. How will you ensure, sir, first of all, is the programs, the

01:49voter purge program still ongoing and how do you ensure that you're actually

01:53capturing voters that should be ineligible? Well, I will say that our

01:59staff is working extremely hard to make sure the voter file maintenance is top of

02:02mind each and every day when we come into the office and we will continue to

02:06make sure that only United States citizens are on Alabama voter files. Yeah, you

02:10know, that's the law that only American citizens can vote. How much did it cost to

02:17defend that program in court? Do you know? I don't have that number. All I can say is

02:23that Alabama taxpayers shouldn't be paying for a program that has shown such

02:27a high rate of inaccuracy and while I totally understand the importance of

02:32making sure that every person who is on the voter roll is eligible, I think that

02:37there are better ways to do that than voter purging. Mr. Allen, Secretary Allen, you

02:43also mentioned in your written testimony that the state banned ballot harvesting

02:47last year. The state legislature passed an initiative that would criminalize

02:52people for assisting others with their absentee ballots. For example, if someone

02:56pays their family member to actually take their ballot, to deliver their ballot, that

03:01person would be, that assistance would be criminally charged and I'm not sure if that

03:08was the intent, but I can tell you that several of my constituents called me in fear of voting

03:14absentee because they were afraid of being, it being rejected for simple reasons like, you

03:20know, not being able to provide the ballot themselves but actually having a family member

03:24deliver it. Can you give us assurances that we in Alabama can actually, you know, have,

03:31make it easier for voters to access the ballot box? I mean, we're one of three states that

03:36don't have early voting, so I think it's really important that we get it right.

03:39Yes, ma'am. The right to vote is sacred and what that bill did was to protect

03:44absentee voting. Paid political activists should not be involved in manipulating the

03:50absentee process. I hear what you're saying, but these are family members who are

03:54trying to help their elderly parents actually vote and they shouldn't be in

03:58fear of, you know, of actually turning in a ballot if they have to borrow money from

04:04their mother to actually get to the, get to the post office or to get to the, to, to

04:11the agency, to the voting registration. There's no, no need to fear. You know, we

04:15mimic federal law. If anybody's disabled, they can have anybody that they choose to

04:19help them with the application. It doesn't pertain to the ballots themselves. It's

04:23already illegal in Alabama for anyone to return a ballot for anyone else. SB 1

04:28specifically talked about the application portion of the absentee ballot process and

04:33it did that. It protected the absentee process. I think that both of us, given

04:37the great history, the amazing history that occurred in our state, we really owe

04:41it to every Alabamian to make sure that not only are they eligible to vote, they

04:45have access to the ballot box. Having said that, Secretary Thomas, I note that you

04:51all passed a voter, a state-level voting rights act in 2023. I know I'm about to run

04:58out of time. I wanted to ask if she could just answer one question with respect to

05:02that. Sure. Can you talk just a little bit about this initiative and how it will

05:07make it easier for folks to vote, your new law? Sure. So the Connecticut Voting Rights

05:13Act passed last session to codify some of the elements of the National Voter Rights

05:20Act, such as free clearance, making sure that materials related to voting were provided in

05:30languages and communities that were majority in certain languages. It also

05:36provides a great transparency for members of the public. They can access statistics

05:43and data about voting in their communities via GIS system. So in Connecticut, anyway, it

05:53passed handily and many... And implemented in 2024 election? Not the Voting Rights Act, other

06:02than the language access, but we did implement early voting in 2024. Thank you, Madam Chair, for

06:09indulging me. I also would ask unanimous consent to submit several articles to the

06:15record. Without objection, so ordered.

Sewell Asks AL Sec Of State: ‘What Percentage Of The Voters...You Purged Were Actually US Citizens?’

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