New data reported by Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen shows that no Alabama county saw more than three votes potentially cast illegally by noncitizens.
Allen announced last week that 186 individuals would be purged from voter rolls after identifying them as potential noncitizens through the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program. Of those 186 individuals, Allen said voting records showed 25 of them had actually cast ballots.
APR emailed Allen’s office seeking clarification on whether those individuals cast votes over multiple election cycles or a single cycle. A spokesperson for the office responded that because referrals have been made to law enforcement, “we can’t provide specific information about any case.”
Allen released a breakdown Monday of how many potentially illegal ballots were cast in each Alabama county. The 25 “non-citizen registered voters with voting history” were spread across 18 Alabama counties. That means the purge only identified any cases of noncitizen voting in 25 percent of Alabama’s 67 counties.
The 18 counties identified were Baldwin, Blount, Chilton, Clarke, Colbert, Franklin, Henry, Houston, Jefferson, Lee, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Mobile, Montgomery, Morgan, Pike and Tuscaloosa.
Of those 18 counties, 13 of them saw just one potential noncitizen each with a recorded voting history. Colbert, Jefferson and Lee Counties had two potential noncitizen voters each while Baldwin and Montgomery had three apiece.
It follows that in 13 Alabama counties, potential noncitizen votes could only affect the outcome of any particular race if it came down to one vote. Similarly, in the other counties, the noncitizen vote would only impact races separated by up to two or three votes. Those situations do arise at the smallest, most localized races, but are rare.
Henry County, one of the smallest counties listed, saw 9,320 ballots cast in the 2024 general election. The potential noncitizen vote would account for just over 0.01 percent of the vote in that instance. Over in Madison County, in that same election, its potential one noncitizen vote would account for 0.0005 percent of the vote, rounded to the nearest ten-thousandth of a percent.
The closest race in 2024 came down to 40 votes in Monroe County, where there is no evidence that noncitizen voting could have occurred.
A Republican primary for the Alabama State Senate seat representing Auburn did come down to a tie in 2022, in Lee County, where two potential noncitizens have a voting history. It is unclear, however, whether either of those individuals voted in that particular race or cycle.
While individuals have been purged from the rolls and referred to law enforcement, the actual citizenship status of each individual has not yet been confirmed. While Allen’s release refers to the individuals purged as “illegally registered noncitizens,” the legal status of the voters has not been proven in court, and the program used to identify potential noncitizens is known to contain potential errors. Allen’s office afforded flagged individuals on the voter rolls the opportunity to respond and show proof of citizenship, and purged those who did not respond with that proof.
“Our elections must be decided by American citizens and only American citizens,” Allen said. “While liberal organizations and media outlets claim noncitizen voting is not a problem, my office has proven otherwise. Under my watch, illegal registration and illegal voting by noncitizens will not be tolerated in Alabama. My office will continue to identify these violations, refer them to law enforcement, and ensure the full force of the law is applied.”
