Secretary of State John Merrill disagrees with Secretary of State-elect Wes Allen’s decision to withdraw state from voting registration system

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - On Wednesday, Alabama’s next Secretary of State Wes Allen announced he will withdraw Alabama from the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC for short.

The organization collects voter and driver license information from 33 member states in order to catch voter registration errors like people registered in two states or dead people still being registered to vote.

Out-going Secretary of State John Merrill says he’s reached out to Allen about his decision.

“I have made overtures to him to try to make sure he’s properly educated about ERIC, what the purpose of the Electronic Registration Information Center is, but unfortunately, he has elected not to have those discussions in detail.”

In a press release, Allen says he plans to have Alabama withdraw from the system by his inauguration in January, claiming he’s heard many concerns over the sensitive information being stored.

That information are the millions of names, addresses and partial social security numbers belonging to the member states’ residents.

Merrill says ERIC has been used to protect the integrity of Alabama’s elections, as recently as this year’s midterms.

“This system has been preventing the state from being exposed to voter fraud. We’ve identified a number of people who have actually committed voter fraud and just last week we introduced twelve individuals to the Attorney General’s office who voted in our state and in another state at the same time.”

Merrill also tells me there are potentially ten others who may have voted in Alabama and another state. He says they’re awaiting confirmation from the other state involved before presenting it to the Attorney General.