From The Tribune staff reports
MONTGOMERY — Secretary of State John H. Merrill announced the formation of the Voter Fraud Reform Task Force, which will meet on September 30, 2021 from 10 a.m.-noon.
The meeting will take place at the Alabama State House in Room 123 on 11 South Union Street in Montgomery. The task force will consist of 15 members, including the Secretary of State serving as the Chairman.
“We believe it is necessary to examine how we define voter fraud in our state and the penalties we assess for voter fraud violations,” Merrill stated. “It is important to note that we assembled a team of respected Alabamians from diverse backgrounds and political persuasions.
“If or when instances of voter fraud are identified, we want to investigate each reported case, and if it is warranted, seek an indictment and then ensure that all guilty parties are convicted after a successful prosecution. However, we believe that it is important to ensure that any individual convicted of voter fraud is punished in an appropriate way and in accordance with the Constitution, as well as state and federal laws.”
Merrill has put together a bipartisan committee to “define voter fraud statutorily,” he said during a Tuesday afternoon with The Tribune. “A lot of people may not understand exactly what voter fraud is.”
The issue of voter fraud — repeatedly raised without evidence — has become a conservative talking point, especially following the reliance on mail-in voting during the 2020 presidential election. However, mail-in voting has been repeatedly deemed secure.
Merrill said he has seen six convictions of voter fraud during his time as secretary of state.
“All 50 states and the District of Columbia require a voter to sign a statement or affidavit when voting by mail, and some also require personal information such as birth dates, addresses and driver’s license numbers,” an explainer from Reuters states. “The signature can then be compared with the voter’s signature on file, usually from a voter registration form.
“Eight states also require a witness signature, while three states require notarization, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Alabama has perhaps the strictest rules, directing voters to submit copies of their IDs as well as signatures from either a notary or two witnesses.”
Despite this, self-styled election integrity “expert” Mike Lindell, claims that 100,000 votes in Alabama were “flipped” during the 2020 presidential election. In fact, Donald Trump won Alabama with 1,441,170 votes to Joe Biden’s 849,624 votes.
At the time of Lindell’s claims, Merrill pushed back, as Lindell’s claims were without merit.
“All our (voting) machines are custom-built,” Merrill told AL.com. “There’s no modem component. You can’t influence them through a cell phone or a landline. There’s no way they can be probed or numbers manipulated.”
In addition, there are no active voter fraud cases in the state of Alabama stemming from the 2020 presidential election.
The members of the task force are Merrill, Senator Sam Givhan (R), Senator Bobby Singleton (D), Representative Matt Simpson (R), Representative Merika Coleman (D), Bullock County Probate Judge James Tatum, Houston County Circuit Clerk Carla Woodall, Montgomery County Sheriff Derek Cunningham, District Attorney for the Fourth Judicial Circuit Michael Jackson, Reid Harris of the Attorney General’s Office, retired Circuit Judge John England, Matt Clark of the Alabama Policy Institute, Southern Poverty Law Center founder Morris Dees, Lu Rivera of Eagle Forum, and Dillon Nettles of the American Civil Liberties Union.
These meetings are open to the general public.