A simmering disagreement between Alabama’s current and former top election officials has erupted into a public and personal feud between Secretary of State Wes Allen and his predecessor, John Merrill, with both trading accusations of dishonesty and misrepresentation.
The dispute centers on the management of Alabama’s voter rolls, Allen’s withdrawal of the state from a multi-state voter data consortium and claims of success in cleaning voter lists, which Merrill contested.
The exchange between the two Republicans escalated rapidly from policy disagreements to sharp personal attacks involving past scandals.
Merrill said in a phone interview Tuesday morning that there has not been any incident previously that would have violated the public’s trust in a system historically used by a majority of states.
“They have actually used their campaign to promote Secretary Allen personally, because he was the only person that spoke about the initiative,” Merrill said.