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Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen on Wednesday highlighted the accomplishments of the Alabama Voter Integrity Database.
Since taking office in September 2023, Allen withdrew Alabama from the Electronic Registration Information Center, a nonprofit that currently assists 25 states in improving the accuracy of their voter rolls.
In a Feb. 26 press release, Allen showcased the efforts his office and AVID have made after pulling out of ERIC. He claimed implementing AVID has “put Alabama on the map for innovations in election integrity.”
“When I came into office, Alabama’s voter file was a bloated mess. Today, I am incredibly proud to showcase what happens when you roll up your sleeves and deliver result,” said Allen.
He added, “On my first day as Alabama’s 54th Secretary of State, I kept my promise to the people of Alabama and withdrew us from ERIC. Following our withdrawal from ERIC, my team and I worked hard to build an Alabama-based voter file maintenance system from the ground up and have removed close to 500,000 names from the voter file.”
Allen’s office described AVID as a “four-pronged system” which uses Alabama Law Enforcement Agency data, the U.S. Postal Service’s National Address Change File, social security death information and memorandums of understanding with other states, “to cross-check voter files and identify individuals registered to vote in multiple states.”
“Through AVID, we have identified over one million voters that were due to be removed from Alabama’s voter file or needed to update their information. This would not have been possible without the hard work and due diligence of our Boards of Registrars or under ERIC,” Allen said.
Allen’s office reported that AVID has placed over 130,000 voters on a path to removal using ALEA data showing voters who have moved out of state.
The Secretary of State reported that over 5,000 deceased voters have also been removed from the state’s rolls.
In February alone, Allen’s office reported that AVID removed 116,286 voters from Alabama’s rolls.
The office said it has identified over 700,000 individuals that will receive notices this spring that they are to be removed from voter registration rolls. The office also claims to have identified 25,000 voters with no driver license or social security number associated with their voter record, and have requested they update their registrations.
Allen’s attempts to “clean-up” Alabama’s voter rolls have not gone without criticism.
Last October, the Secretary of State’s office was ordered by a federal judge to halt a voter purge Allen called for. After directing the state’s Board of Registrars to remove any citizen who has received a “noncitizen identification number” from the Department of Homeland Security, several lawsuits were filed against the Secretary of State.
A case filed on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Alabama, the Alabama Coalition of Immigrant Justice and the Alabama Conference of the NAACP accused Allen’s office of removing naturalized citizens from state voter registration rolls.
The plaintiffs also alleged that, by conducting a purge of the voter rolls less than 90 days before the 2024 Presidential Election, the Secretary of State was in violation of both NVRA and the Voting Rights Act.
The Campaign Legal Center, one of the plaintiffs in the case against Allen, wrote, “All naturalized citizens at one point had noncitizen identification numbers prior to becoming citizens, so Secretary Allen’s purge clearly included—and by design targeted—qualified U.S. citizens.”
The U.S. Department of Justice subsequently sued Allen, joining with the previous suit.
Allen, who announced his 2026 bid for lieutenant governor last week argued AVID’s implementation has brought “monumental results” and has placed the state’s voter rolls amongst the best in the nation.
“Because of AVID, Alabama has become a blueprint state in election integrity. It is an honor and a privilege to play this role in making Alabama the national front-runner in voter file maintenance,” Allen said.
