Terri Sewell Shreds Governor Kay Ivey For 'Purging' Thousands Of Voters From Alabama Voter Rolls

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During a House Administration Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) spoke about Gov. Kay Ivey's (R-AL) efforts to remove voters from Alabama's voter rolls.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:02I want to welcome all of our visitors here today and our witnesses.

00:07As a daughter of Selma and the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Elections, there's

00:11nothing more important to me than making sure that every eligible American has access to

00:16the ballot box.

00:18Our vote is our voice and everyone's voice should be heard in elections.

00:22Voting is the most important way Americans participate in the political process but far

00:26too often illegal voter purging occurs removing eligible voters from the rolls and preventing

00:32them from exercising their right to vote.

00:35A few months ago or a few months before the November election in my home state of Alabama

00:40Secretary of State Wes Allen who actually appeared before this committee a few months ago directed

00:46the Alabama Board of Registrars to remove individuals from the voter rolls that were issued as quote

00:53non-citizen identification numbers end quote by the Department of Homeland Security.

00:59Secretary Allen shared a list of 3,251 voters with the Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall

01:06for potential prosecution.

01:08However, his office failed to implement the proper safeguards to ensure that eligible voters

01:15didn't fall through the cracks.

01:17As a result, Secretary Allen's purging initiatives removed more than 2,000 eligible Alabama voters

01:26illegally from the rolls.

01:28One of these legally registered voters was my constituent rolled, his name is Mr. Hazel Hoff.

01:38He was a resident of Birmingham.

01:40He moved from the Netherlands to Alabama in 1988 and he gained his citizenship in a U.S.

01:46citizenship immigration naturalization process in Montgomery on July 18, 2022.

01:52In 2023, he obtained his star ID which requires individuals, as we all know, to show up to

01:59show proof of citizenship.

02:01Eighty-four days before the election, he received a letter from the Department of the Board of

02:06Registrars informing him that he was removed from the voter rolls.

02:10I'd like to submit his testimony, his story, into the record.

02:13May I unanimous consent to do so?

02:15With no objection, so ordered.

02:18So my constituent, Mr. Hazel Hoff, who actually is an American nationalized citizen, was denied

02:26the opportunity to vote.

02:28And he had to prove, even though he had already submitted his star ID, that he was actually

02:34a citizen.

02:35And he showed that proof.

02:36But I know, like you, Ms. Helling, that so many people don't have the opportunity or the

02:42time or the patience to actually go to the Board of Registrars to prove, like you did,

02:48that you actually were illegally purged.

02:51So there are lots and lots of folks that go about doing that.

02:55And I want you to talk a little bit about how long it took you to actually get your name

03:00back on the rolls.

03:02And have you, and the second part of that question is, are you assured that in future elections

03:07that you will actually not be on such an illegal, purged roll?

03:11Well, when I received that postcard, I scanned the QR code.

03:18It was very difficult to follow because you could only do it on your phone.

03:23And I spent well over an hour trying to find my name.

03:27There was no easy way.

03:31You couldn't pull up your name and look for it.

03:34You just had to look.

03:37And after all that time, I said, oh, heck, my husband and I registered together.

03:42This has to be a mistake.

03:44Was your husband's role?

03:46He was not purged from the role, but you were, even though you all registered.

03:49Yes, even though we registered at the same time.

03:55So it took that time.

03:56And then I kind of didn't worry about it until I saw another search engine.

04:02And all of a sudden, there was my name.

04:04Whoa, what happened?

04:06So I had to think about it.

04:09And I thought, no, I've got to go fix this, which is a drive.

04:14The Board of Elections used to be right downtown.

04:16It's now further out of the city.

04:19So I did get there.

04:20The point is that you took more than reasonable efforts to go about getting your name back

04:24on the roles.

04:25That's how I grew up.

04:26And, Madam Chair, I agree with you that election integrity is a bipartisan issue.

04:31I think no one benefits when people are illegally purged from the voter rolls.

04:37One must maintain a voter list.

04:41And every effort should be made to make sure that the people on that voter list are legitimately

04:47not supposed to be.

04:49And therein lies the rub.

04:52So, Ms. Helling, could you talk a little bit about what you think your advice would be to

04:56us to make sure that there's a balance?

04:59That we have a proper balance between maintaining roles and making sure that we're not using it

05:04as a weapon to purge and to cause voter suppression.

05:08And I understand the importance of voters being registered.

05:13But when we were registered and we gave all the information that was asked of us, and we

05:21provided that with our photo ID, with our current address, should we not be able to continue

05:28to vote?

05:29And why would we take 200,000-plus people to go through this?

05:34And that's just in North Carolina.

05:37Thank you so much for allowing her to complete her sentence.

05:40And I want to thank you for actually coming to our committee today to provide your own testimony,

05:46personal testimony, as to how so often these voter maintenance programs are used for voter

05:51suppression and actually do purge legitimate American citizens.

05:56Thank you so much.

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