Secretary of State Jim Bennett said the state will proceed with implementation of the Legislature’s requirement that new voters show proof of citizenship.
Bennett stated, “Now that the U.S. Senate has finally confirmed long-vacant Commissioner positions on the Election Assistance Commission, those officials are now in place to grant our request that all voter registration applicants supply documentation of U.S. citizenship in accordance with state law.”
Bennett said that future Alabama voter registrants will be asked to provide documentation such as a birth certificate, Star Alabama driver’s license or nondriver ID card, passport, naturalization documents, or other documents showing U.S. citizenship. “There are different approaches we can take depending on the response we receive from the EAC. Alabama is a sovereign state and our Legislature has determined that in the future, people registering to vote must prove that they are indeed U.S. citizens.”
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that the EAC was not required to change Kansas and Arizona’s voter registration instructions requiring proof of citizenship because those states had not shown that the instructions were necessary to prevent noncitizens from registering to vote. Alabama is not in that judicial circuit and that court decision is not binding on Alabama.
“I hope that the U.S. Supreme Court will reverse the decision of the 10th Circuit,” Bennett added. “Non-citizens should not be allowed to vote in any election. It makes little sense to allow non-citizens to vote and influence national and state public policy and decide who will become the decision makers. I guess they could vote in their own countries as well, kind of like global voters.”
