SPLC asks Alabama to restore voters to ‘active’ status by next month

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Last Tuesday, Alabama voters across the state fund themselves listed as inactive when they arrived at the polls to vote in the special U.S. Senate primary.

Now the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is asking Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill to reinstate those roughly 340,162 Alabamian voters before the September 26 Senate runoff.

According to the federal National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) as well as state laws, every four years cards are sent to voters to verify voter addresses in order to maintain their “active” voting status. If they’re marked “return to sender” twice, the voter is put on the inactive list.

In a Friday letter to Merrill, the SPLC said they believers voters were inaccurately moved to inactive and the state’s process was “deeply flawed” and that it was “imperative you take immediate corrective action to return inactive voters to the active voting list.”

Inactive voters are able to restore their active status by filling out a form at the polls, but the SPLC says that process may dissuade voters from showing up to vote.

Voters who are unsure of their voting status may check it online here.

To check via phone voters can call the Secretary of State’s Office at (334) 242-7210 or at their local board of registrars office.