Alabama Continues to Erode our Liberties

Guest Opinion by Robert Retsch

Alabama’s HB 67 Bill recently passed the State House and is on its way to the Senate floor.  Although some language was improved in the process, the bill in its current form will erode more of our liberties.  

To date, Alabama charges ~$38,000 for a copy of their state voter roll, the highest in the nation.  Although the cost is reduced in the bill to a cap of $1,000, the price is still grossly unreasonable compared to 20 other states who charge anywhere from $0 to $50.   Florida and Ohio for examples have their rolls posted on line and frequently updated.

The bill further codifies and restricts the Secretary of State’s ability to disseminate data which again pales by comparison to other states, such as Absentee voter information, voter history beyond the last 10 elections, and telephone numbers.  

Lastly, the bill’s language states on line 99, “. . .it shall be unlawful to sell or publish any portion of voter list or use voter data. . .”, which will eliminate any third-party non-partisan public service organizations like VoteRef.com from providing free valuable analysis and service to the public. 

The office of the Secretary of State has not performed in their responsibility to protect our valuable right to free and fair elections as cited by the recent example of a Canadian citizen voting nine times in Blount County.  Why only recently has the SOS announced that he found over 3,000 non-citizens on our voter rolls?  This effort should have started on day 2 of his term, not at the end.  

This is what we get when our voter rolls are centralized and controlled not by our 67 county registrars but by ES&S in Omaha, Nebraska, which is vulnerable to uncontrolled back door access. 

Alabama Legislature must completely free up our data and not further restrict access we as her citizens deserve and demand. 

It is time to Kill HB67.

Robert Retsch

Robert Retsch (Bob), is a retired Mechanical Engineer who worked in the Aerospace Industry for 43 years.  His work included positions at Pratt & Whitney, Lockheed’s famous Skunk Works and Missiles & Space as well as Huntsville’s Targets & Countermeasures.  He finished his career as a Subject Matter Expert at the Missile Defense Agency.  

Bob also is the author of a memoir titled Luckiest Engineer: From Farm Boy to Skunk Works and Beyond.

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