BY GREG MARKLEY
OPINION —
“It doesn’t matter what I think, it doesn’t matter what I feel, the dead are still dead,” so said a guard who allowed hundreds of women and children to die in The Reader (2008). I have lived in five U.S. states (Rhode Island, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and New York.) In each, people joked after an election that deceased people voted. After Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen oversaw changes to the voter list, finding a dead voter’s name on a ballot will be rare.
“The Alabama Voter Integrity Database (AVID) will allow us for the first time in our state’s history, to identify people who are currently on our voter list who have passed away,” Allen said at a Sept. 8 press conference at the Capitol. “This will be regardless of the state in which they died and immediately remove them from our voter rolls.”
AVID is a four-part system that the SOS office spent developing to sustain an uncontaminated and accurate registered voter list. AVID has four aspects: an inter-agency agreement with Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, National Change of Address File, cooperative agreements with other states and analysis of the Social Security Death Index.
Just as states like Alabama are taking voting laws seriously, a Republican presidential candidate is proving himself foolish when it comes to “one man, one vote.” Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy also does not know how difficult a constitutional amendment is to get ratified. Only 27 have been added to the U.S. Constitution, and the most recent one was thirty one years ago.
Somehow, Ramaswamy who is just 37, thinks he can gain more of the youth vote. How? By proposing a constitutional amendment that would require citizens 18 to 24 to pass a civics test in order to vote — just as is needed to become naturalized U.S. citizens. He proposes that young Americans could, instead, serve six months with the military or first-responders. If none of these requirements are met, these individuals would have to wait until age 25 before they vote.
Even if Ramaswamy were elected, this amendment would probably fade away due to the Constitution being so tough to add to. It requires either a two-thirds majority in the House and Senate or be requested by two-thirds of the states. It would still have to be ratified by three-quarters of the states. Good luck with that in 2025, President Vivek.
Election integrity is admirable when pursued sensibly. Secretary Allen, 48, has addressed the problem since he was sworn into office in January. Elected in 2022, he had been a member of the Alabama House of Representatives from 2018-2022. He has a bachelors from the University of Alabama and a masters from Troy University. As probate judge for Pike County (2009-2018), he supervised many elections; this made him a creditable candidate for secretary of state.
Allen withdrew Alabama from membership in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). He said the $25,000 membership fee wasted taxpayer dollars and stated Alabamians would not agree to their information being used by ERIC to maintain accurate voter rolls. Allen also was concerned the seed money used to start ERIC was tied to organizations funded by billionaire George Soros.
A Hungarian-American businessman, Soros is now 93 years old. Commendably, he has (as of 2022) donated 64% of his original fortune, which was $8.6 billion. Forbes magazine called him “the most generous giver” based on his net worth and the share of it that he has provided to charities and foundations. But Soros became a subject of multiple conspiracy theories, from anti-semitic (he is Jewish) to having ERIC corrupting elections, which Wes Allen believes.
“The data now is secure,” he said. “It is sent and received encrypted and hashed (jumbled). The data is stored in Alabama and on a server owned by the State of Alabama. I promised that we would develop an Alabama-based solution to manage the integrity of our state’s voter list. AVID is that solution.”
For voters aged 18-24, voting should be available without presidential candidates trying to cut down on the legal votes of the party (Democratic) that is more popular with young adults than their own. “Dead people don’t usually vote but when they do they prefer to vote by mail,” is an election-day adage. After Secretary State Wes Allen oversaw changes to the voter list, finding a dead voter’s name on a ballot will be rare indeed.
.Greg Markley moved to Lee County in 1996. He has a master’s in education from AUM and a masters in history from Auburn University. He taught politics as an adjunct in Georgia and Alabama. An award-winning writer in the Army and civilian life, he has contributed to the Observer since 2011. He writes on politics, education and books. gm.markley@charter.net