AL Secretary of State discovers over 3000 non-citizens registered to vote
MONTGOMERY, Ala. August 15, 2024
In the middle of a presidential election year, where one of the main topics has been illegal voters, the Alabama Secretary of State, Wes Allen says that his office has found that 3,251 people who are here legally in the country but not U.S. citizens have somehow been able to register to vote in Alabama, which is against the law.
“We’re still trying to dig in on that and get to the bottom of that,” said Allen.
He’s requested the Boards of Registrars in all 67 counties immediately inactivate those people from their voter files and start the process of removing them.
In Mobile County, there are 394, and in Baldwin County, there are 143 noncitizens registered to vote. Allen says they were all issued noncitizen identification numbers by the federal government.
Statewide, this issue has been a hot button with local candidates and now it seems that they were right to be concerned.
“If they can prove that they are naturalized citizens, they have to show an Alabama driver’s license, a valid Alabama driver’s license, or the last four digits of their Social Security number,” said Allen.
Allen says finding this out wasn’t easy. Noncitizen identification numbers are issued by the Department of Homeland Security, but he says the feds wouldn’t supply the information.
“We met roadblock after roadblock after roadblock, red tape bureaucracy, so we had to, had to go a different route. And it’s taken a little while to do that. And we built this from scratch, from really day one,” said Allen.
Allen says they obtained the noncitizen identification numbers through the Alabama Department of Labor and Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Allen says he’s turned over his findings to Attorney General Steve Marshall. On X Wednesday, formerly known as Twitter, Marshall posted “BE ADVISED: Violations of state election laws will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
“It’s a federal offense to register to vote if you’re not a legal citizen,” said Allen. “So, yeah, there could be criminal prosecutions.”
Allen says they’re also investigating whether or not the people identified have voted in previous elections.
Nationwide in recent years, deceased persons and others who were not legally allowed to vote in local and national elections have somehow been able to cast their votes.
