Two Alabama judges tapped to serve on election council
Secretary of State John Merrill announced that two Alabamians had been named to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s Local Leadership Council (LLC). James Tatum, Probate Judge of Bullock County, and Andrea LeCroy, Probate Judge of Marshall County, will serve as Alabama’s representatives on the LLC. The LLC is a federal advisory board that will focus almost exclusively on the responsibilities of local election officials. The council will consist of two members from each state to ensure geographic diversity, objectivity, and balance. According to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) website, the EAC established the Local Leadership Council on June 8, 2021. The board is comprised up of 100 local election officials who are current or former officers in each state’s local election official association. The advisory board gives recommendations to the EAC on topics like voter registration and voter list maintenance, voting system user practices, ballot administration, processing, accounting, canvassing, auditing and testing of ballots, and certification of results.
John Merrill creates new bipartisan Voter Fraud Reform Task Force
Secretary of State John Merrill announced yesterday the formation of a Voter Fraud Reform Task Force. The task force will consist of 15 members, including the Secretary of State as the Chairman. The group will meet on September 30, 2021, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the Alabama State House in Room 123 on 11 South Union Street in Montgomery. The meeting will be open to the general public. Secretary Merrill stated, “We believe it is necessary to examine how we define voter fraud in our state and the penalties we assess for voter fraud violations. It is important to note that we assembled a team of respected Alabamians from diverse backgrounds and political persuasions. “If or when instances of voter fraud are identified, we want to investigate each reported case, and if it is warranted, seek an indictment and then ensure that all guilty parties are convicted after a successful prosecution. However, we believe that it is important to ensure that any individual convicted of voter fraud is punished in an appropriate way and in accordance with the Constitution, as well as state and federal laws.” Earlier this week, Sec. Merrill met with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. Lindell, who is currently being sued by Dominion Voting Systems, has been traveling the country in an effort to prove the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump by computer manipulation, Al.com reported. In a video posted online, Lindell said while Alabama is a “role model as to how elections should go,” its voting system was “hacked…just like every other state,” possibly by accessing machines remotely through Bluetooth technology. Lindell claims 100,000 votes were changed in Alabama, although he did not offer any evidence of his claims. Merrill said Lindell is expected to return to Alabama to examine the equipment and talk to probate judges. Lindell bought a copy of Alabama’s voting rolls for $30,000. For the 2020 election in Alabama, roughly 2.3 million votes were cast for Donald Trump (1,441,170) and Joe Biden (849,624). Merrill said that’s not possible, telling Al.com, “All our (voting) machines are custom-built. There’s no modem component. You can’t influence them through a cell phone or a landline. There’s no way they can be probed or numbers manipulated.” Merrill said Lindell is expected to return to Alabama to examine the equipment and talk to probate judges. Merrill posted on Twitter, “Last night I was excited to talk to Josh Marcus of The @Independent, which is a media outlet in the United Kingdom! I was happy to talk to him about our successful administration of the 2020 general election and how we continue to make it #EasyToVoteAndHardToCheat in Alabama!” Originally tweeted by John Merrill (@JohnHMerrill) on September 23, 2021. The members of the task force are Secretary of State John H. Merrill, Senator Sam Givhan (R), Senator Bobby Singleton (D), Representative Matt Simpson (R), Representative Merika Coleman (D), Bullock County Probate Judge James Tatum, Houston County Circuit Clerk Carla Woodall, Montgomery County Sheriff Derek Cunningham, District Attorney for the Fourth Judicial Circuit Michael Jackson, Reid Harris of the Attorney General’s Office, retired Circuit Judge John England, Matt Clark of the Alabama Policy Institute, Southern Poverty Law Center founder Morris Dees, Lu Rivera of Eagle Forum, and Dillon Nettles of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Bullock County probate judge candidate disqualified from race
Last week, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill joined incumbent Bullock County Probate Judge James Tatum in publicly disqualifying his opponent; independent candidate Justin Faulk. Merrill and Tatum met in front of the Bullock County Courthouse on Tuesday to publicly discuss the reasons Faulk was being disqualified. According to the two men Faulk did not send in the required financial form in the alloted timeframe. Since Faulk was running as an independent, a petition signed by members of the community was required to provide him with ballot access. The two men also accuse Faulk, or some of his supporters, of forging signatures on the petition he sent to Tatum’s office in June. Tatum said that after receiving and reviewing the 18 pages and 102 signatures of the petition, it was clear some of the signatures were signed by the same person. Tatum then turned the petition over to Merrill’s office where it was investigated. “As a result of this investigation it was determined that several of those signatures were invalid,” Tatum told the gathering. “Now this is unethical. It’s dishonest, it’s illegal, it is wrong, and it’s corruption at the highest; and this will not be tolerated,” he continued. Faulk told WSFA that he did send in the required paperwork, both to the probate office and the Alabama Ethics Commission. Tatum said the probate office was not the correct place to send the paperwork, and that he never received it. “In regards to the petition, Faulk said as far he knew, every one of the signatures is valid, not forged by him or his five primary supporters who handled the petition,” WSFA reported. “In fact, Bullock County Sheriff Raymond Rogers told WSFA that based on his own investigation, the signatures were not forged and that they were all signed by the very people listed on the 18 pages.” “We’re good, honest people and I will defend myself because I know I am right and he’s wrong,” Faulk said, WSFA reported. Watch Tatum and Merrill’s full press conference below:
