Alabama Secretary of State releases report on crossover voting in 2018 election

At the conclusion of the 2017 United States Senate Special Election Run-off, the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office reviewed a formal, routine election report indicating that 140 individuals had been given credit for voting in the Democrat primary election on August 15th and then voting in the Republican run-off election on September 26. This action, termed Crossover Voting, is an action which would violate the State’s Crossover Voting law (Act No. 2017-340).

After reviewing the report, Secretary of State John Merrill identified the local chief election official - the Probate Judge - as the proper authority to determine whether those listed were willful in their intent, negligent, or whether these findings were listed in error in each county where the incident occurred. In each of the 41 Counties, the Probate Judge’s determined it was not necessary to prosecute any of the 140 individuals found to have violated the crossover voting law.

Following the conclusion of the 2018 Run-Off Election, Secretary Merrill directed the Elections Division to review the list of 398 voters that were found to be in violation of the crossover voting law and compare that list with the list of 140 voters from the 2017 Senate Special Election. Once this review was completed it was determined that only one voter was found to have potentially violated the law 2017 and 2018.

Secretary Merrill then personally visited with and interviewed the person found to have potentially violated the law. At the conclusion of that visit it became clear to Secretary Merrill that either the poll worker or a county registrar improperly marked the wrong political party in processing the voters’ primary voter participation credit. Due to this information, Secretary Merrill determined further legal action was not necessary, at this time.