Alabama should see record voter turnout, secretary of state tells Hoover chamber

Alabama should see a record voter turnout for the Nov. 3 presidential election, Secretary of State John Merrill told the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce today.

He expects to see 2.5 to 2.8 million people cast ballots, which would represent 68 to 75% of the registered voters in the state, he told the chamber crowd at an outdoor meeting at the Finley Center — the chamber’s first in-person meeting since the COVID-19 shutdown began in March.

If voters come to the polls like Merrill expects, that would be 400,000 to 700,000 more people than have ever cast ballots in an Alabama election, he said.

The state is also experiencing a record number of absentee ballot applications. The previous record was about 89,000 when former President Barack Obama was reelected in 2012, Merrill said. On Tuesday of this week, the state surpassed 91,000 absentee ballot applications for the general election, he said. By election day, he expects to have more than 200,000 absentee ballots requested, he said.

The COVID-19 pandemic likely is the biggest reason. Merrill in July ruled that any person who deems it is unreasonable to go to the polls on election day because of the pandemic can check a box on their absentee ballot application that says, “I have a physical illness or infirmity which prevents my attendance at the polls.”

Some election manager offices across the state are having a difficult time keeping up with the volume of absentee ballot requests, so some of them are staying open longer hours and sometimes working on Saturdays to get the applications processed and ballots mailed out, he said.

Merrill encouraged anyone planning to request an absentee ballot to go ahead and do it now instead of waiting until the Oct. 29 deadline.

“The longer you wait, the longer the lines are going to be and the greater problem that you’re going to have for frustration,” he said.

POST OFFICE TROUBLES

There also is some concern about delays with the U.S. Postal Service. After his speech, Merrill said the USPS is one of the most inefficient and ineffective operations around.

One of the biggest problems in Alabama is that the USPS no longer allows local post offices to print cancellation lines over postage stamps, Merrill said. All the mail across the state is sent to Birmingham for sorting and postage cancellation before being delivered to its destination, he said.

Merrill said he talked with the assistant U.S. postmaster in Washington D.C. this week to request that local post offices be given authority to cancel out postage for election materials to expedite the handling of absentee ballots. “They’re still working on it,” he said.

The Alabama secretary of state’s office has established a way for people who have cast an absentee ballot to check online at alabamavotes.gov to see if their ballot has been received. If people don’t receive confirmation their ballot has been received by election day and are afraid their vote won’t be counted, they still can go and cast a provisional ballot in person.

The election manager for that jurisdiction will determine by Friday, Nov. 6, whether the absentee ballot was counted, Merrill said. If the absentee ballot was received and counted, the in-person ballot will be discarded, but if the absentee ballot was not received, the in-person ballot will be counted, he said.

UNIVERSAL VOTING BY MAIL

Merrill noted that some states are moving toward a “universal vote by mail” process by which every registered voter in the state is mailed a ballot whether they request one or not. President Donald Trump has pushed back against that idea, and Merrill said he opposes it, too.

Before COVID-19, only five states — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington — had universal voting by mail, Merrill said. Colorado, Oregon and Washington were doing it the best, and they have indicated that even to initiate the process of universal voting by mail, a state needs to have at least 60% of its ballots already returned by mail, Merrill said. Alabama has only 4% of its ballots being returned by mail now, he said.

Also, those states that follow that method said it takes five years to fully and successfully implement universal voting by mail, Merrill said. Some states are rushing to implement it now, and those efforts have been a “massive failure” so far, he said.

Also, it now costs Alabama $16.5 million to process an election, including the primary, primary runoff and general election, Merrill said. Universal voting by mail would cost an estimated $60 million, he said.

“Even a career bureaucrat in Montgomery or Washington can think of a better way to waste $44 million than that,” Merrill said.

Some states also allow early in-person voting, but Merrill said that has not increased voter participation, and he doesn’t think the extra convenience for small group of people is worth the extra expenses involved.

INCREASING PARTICIPATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Merrill said he has worked hard since taking office as secretary of state in January 2015 to increase voter registration and participation and to protect the integrity of the voting process.

Since he took office, almost 1.7 million new voters have been registered, bringing the total number of registered voters to a record 3,681,467 voters, he said. “Per capita, no state in the union has done what we’ve done in the same period of time,” he said.

Ninety-four percent of all Alabamians who are eligible to vote are registered to vote, Merrill said. That includes 96% of all eligible African-Americans and 91% of all eligible white residents, he said.

In addition, 982,000 people have been removed from voter rolls since January 2015 either because they moved, died or were put in jail, Merrill said. “We want everybody to participate, but only those that are eligible to do so,” he said.

State legislators passed legislation to restore voting rights to people who have been released from incarceration and paid all their fines and fees, he added.

Also, his office has implemented an electronic poll book in 63 of Alabama’s 67 counties so far, he said. That keeps someone from voting under a name for which a ballot already has been cast, he said. It also speeds up lines because voters no longer have to sort into lines based on the first letter of their last name; they can get in any line to vote, which reduces wait times by 60% to 75%, he said.

Some people still push back against the requirement for a photo ID, saying it’s meant to keep certain groups of people from participating in the process, but that’s not the case, Merrill said.

Obtaining a photo ID has not been a problem for people, he said. Election officials across the state work with people who have difficulty getting somewhere to get a photo ID, and Merrill said anyone who has a problem getting one through normal procedures can call him directly on his cell phone at 334-328-2787.

“You’re welcome to call me anytime so I can be helpful to you,” Merrill said.

Some people have questioned the wisdom of him giving out his cell phone number to the whole state, but “I work for you,” he said. “If you need to reach me, you ought to be able to do so when it’s important to you, not when it’s convenient for me.”

The state has had record voter registration and record participation in the last six statewide elections, he said.

“Our voter rolls today are better than they’ve ever been in the history of the state,” he said. “I take a lot of pride in that. Accountability, transparency are so very important.”

CHAMBER REUNION

Today was the first time the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce has had a monthly luncheon with in-person attendance since February. The March luncheon was canceled because of COVID-19, and the chamber started holding virtual luncheons in April.

Normally, chamber luncheons are held indoors at the Hoover Country Club, but today’s luncheon was outdoors at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex — in the grassy area between Hoover Metropolitan Stadium and the Finley Center.

Most people wore masks when moving around and not eating, but many took them off once seated for the program. About 150 people attended the luncheon and brought their own chairs, spacing them apart as they desired.

Food and drinks were provided by food trucks, including Pazzo Big Slice Pizza, Little London, 2 Men and a Pig, Baba Java Coffee, CakEffect and a Pints and Pops ice cream and popsicle truck.

The chamber gave out a Hometown Hero Award to Karen Belcher, a longtime pediatric nurse at Children’s of Alabama hospital who in 2014 co-founded Alabama Game Changers, a nonprofit that works to promote literacy, prevent academic failure and eliminate social and emotional challenges for students with learning difficulties such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia.