The Alabama Secretary of State’s Office released a 31-page informational publication Thursday directed at election misinformation and misconceptions.
The publication, compiled by the Elections Division of the Alabama Secretary of State, provides facts and clarifications to a number of election day and post-election day falsities. Including within the slideshow are statistics on voting, registration and turnout, and multiple breakdowns of security and voting processes.
“During the age of misinformation and disinformation, voters everywhere should be reminded that election officials are the trusted sources for election information,” said Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, in the publication. “Our Office works diligently each and every day to see that voters in Alabama are educated with the most accurate and up-to-date information related to elections.
“Misleading information is spread daily through social media and text messaging, and it is important that voters know AlabamaVotes.gov is their trusted source for election information.”
According to the publication, 73 percent, or 1,387,343 Alabama voters, registered to vote online or via the mobile application since 2015.
Also since 2015, 1,282,990 voters have been removed from the voters rolls, with 3,599,224 people currently registered to vote in the state of Alabama.
For the 2020 general election, 62.8 percent, or 2,329,114 registered voters, cast a ballot on Election Day, 13.1 percent of which were absentee ballots.
The previous state legislative session saw Alabama legislators introduce a multitude of voting-related bills, passing eight total during the session. The majority of the eight bills enacted focused on voting security and increased penalties for voter fraud and misconduct, holding pace with the flood of similar bills increasing criminal penalties for election misconduct submitted and enacted in Republican-majority state legislatures in the wake of the 2020 election.
A national poll conducted by Reuters and Ipsos Group between May 17 and May 19, 2021, found that 61 percent of Republicans believe the 2021 presidential election was “stolen” from Republican nominee Donald Trump. A further 56 percent of Republicans believe the election was tainted with illegal voting.
