Secretary of State Discusses Crossover Voting in Recent Election

Secretary of State John Merrill tells Alabama News Network there were 674 instances of crossover voting in the Republican Senate Runoff.  Merrill explains these are voters who participated in the August 15th primary as Democrats and then voted in the Republican U.S. Senate Runoff in September.

Merrill says this happened in 41 of Alabama’s 67 counties.  Multiple counties had only one instance of crossover voting while Jefferson County had 380.  Montgomery County had 34.

“What matters is whether or not they willingly, knowingly and willfully actually participated in the process to try to circumvent the new law that was passed by the legislature earlier this year,” Merrill shared.

Merrill says each of the names will be turned over to the local probate judge’s offices to be vetted.  That process will be completed and returned to the Secretary of State by November 6th.

“That’s why you’re going through the vetting process to determine whether or not someone is actually culpable and see if someone needs to be prosecuted,” he explained.

Merrill says voter fraud is a Class C Felony and violators can face 1-10 years in jail and up to a $15,000 fine.

The ACLU of Alabama has released a statement saying:

“We find it surprising that election officials, who must have had the voting records available to them, would have permitted any crossover voting. This was a new law, in effect for the first time. Rather than contemplating prosecution, government officials should have proactively taken steps to ensure that crossover voting could not occur. The state’s “gotcha” approach to voting rights is counterproductive. We hope the crossover law does not result in discouraging voters in the general election because it does not affect who can vote or who you can vote for on December 12.”