New Partnership Tackles Voter Fraud
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The state is taking extra steps to make sure elections are done right in Alabama.
Secretary of State John Merrill announced a new initiative earlier today.
It’s called the Alabama Election Fairness Project and it goes into effect immediately.
And it’s not just the secretary of state who’s involved.
John Merrill is teaming up with both the Attorney General’s Office as well as the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency for the Election Fairness Project.
A partnership Attorney General Luther Strange says will make it easier to enforce the law.
“Complaints will come into the secretary of state’s office, he is our chief elected official. If he sees something he thinks may be a violation he’ll send it to ALEA for their review. All throughout the process, my office, the prosecutorial staff, will be informed and in the loop,” said Attorney General Strange.
Secretary of State Merrill says there’s been a problem with complaints getting stuck in his office.
The new project goes into effect immediately, and they already have several cases under investigation.
“We’re going to start with the election cycle we just experienced. We’re going back to the general election, Nov. 4 2014, back to the July 15th run off, and back to the June 3rd primary,” said Merrill.
Not only are they looking at voter fraud, but also campaign finances. Even though the investigation starts with the state government, Merrill says ALEA will keep this from becoming a political process.
“General Strange was elected and reelected to his second term. I’ve just been elected to my first time. But our law enforcement people which are some of the finest men and women that we have in the state of alabama only answer to the people of Alabama because they are trained professional investigators,” said Merrill.
