Andrew Sorrell on Why He’s Running for Alabama Secretary of State

Andrew Sorrell, Republican candidate for Alabama Secretary of State, recently set a new fundraising record for the first campaign reporting period for that position. Sorrell raised over $50,000 in 12 days, far exceeding the previous record of $38,481.

As of the most recent campaign filing, his campaign had more than $270,000 in cash on hand. As the only declared candidate so far, that puts Sorrell in a very good position at this time.

Sorrell spoke with ALPolitics.com on Tuesday, June 3, about why he’s running for Secretary of State, rather than seeking a second term as State Auditor. He also discussed his plans to slash fees and increase election security and integrity.

“I’m running for Secretary of State because I care deeply about election integrity,” Sorrell said. “I've played a small role in election integrity the last 2 1/2 years by supporting registrars in 66 of our 67 counties. I’ve probably done more than 80 appointments in those 66 counties. As we’ve had vacancies, I filled them.

“I’m very interested in the election integrity process. I have what I consider to be a perfect voting record on election integrity issues in the legislature, when I served from 2019 to 2023. That's why I decided to run for Secretary of State.

“I believe Alabama does elections the right way, in general. We vote in person, on Election Day, with a photo ID, on a paper ballot, and those are what I consider the four pillars of election integrity. When you start getting away from those four things, you start having trouble in your elections.

“So, I will oppose efforts that will repeal Alabama‘s voter ID law, that will allow for a mass mail out of ballots, that will expand voting day into voting month—anything that will change those four pillars of election integrity.

“There are bills introduced every year in the legislature to repeal some of our election integrity safeguards, and I will vehemently oppose those.

“What I will do as Secretary of State is what I outline as my PLAN. PLAN is an acronym:

“The “P” stands for PARTNERING with more States in expanding the Alabama Voter Integrity Database (AVID). It was just announced that Virginia is the 10th state to sign a Memorandum of Understanding in the AVID voter system. This is a system that (current Alabama Secretary of State) Wes Allen created. We share voter lists with other States, we run a check, we find duplicates on the voter rolls, and to date we’ve eliminated 40,000 duplicates from the Alabama voter rolls. We're also able to catch people who are voting in two States in the same election cycle. So, I want to triple the number of member States in the AVID program if I’m elected Secretary of State, in my first term.

“The “L” is LOWERING service fees. We charge $100 fee to update your business's registered agent. We charge $100 to close down an entity. We charge $38,000 to purchase a copy of the Alabama voter roles. Those fees are all too high. I will slash them by 50% or more. To purchase the voter roles, I will slash that fee by 90%, or more.

“The “A” I think is the most important part of the plan, and that stands for AUDITING our elections. The election audit bill by Representative Debbie Wood has died in the Alabama state Senate the last two years. It’s passed the Alabama House and died in the Senate. We’ve got to have an election audit if we’re going to be serious about election integrity. There are only five States in the nation that don’t have an election audit, and we’re one of them.

“The manufacturers of the DS 200 tabulators that we use to count our votes recommend a hand count, manual tally audit in their manual, and we still don’t do it. so, that’s going to be my number one emphasis as Secretary of State. We’re going to get a strong audit bill through the Legislature.

“And finally, we’re going to have a NEW division of Election Integrity in the Secretary of State's office—five individuals who are devoted to cleaning up the voter rolls and investigating claims of voter fraud.

“I’m going to add watermarks to our ballots. I talked to Tennessee Secretary of State, Tre Hargett, last week. He says they watermark their absentee ballots. Georgia watermarks all of their ballots. In Alabama, we don’t watermark any of our ballots, so nobody can tell the difference between a fake ballot and a real ballot.

“So, that’s a quick overview of what I’m going to do as Secretary of State,” Sorrell concluded.

Sorrells PLAN is available on his campaign website HERE, for those who want to know more.

Andrew Sorrell is a 39-year-old entrepreneur, private pilot, advanced SCUBA diver, Eagle Scout, and former State Representative from House District 3 in Colbert County. After serving a term in the Alabama Legislature, Andrew decided to run for State Auditor and was elected November 8th, 2022, becoming Alabama’s youngest statewide elected official. He was consistently ranked as one of the most conservative legislators in Alabama, earning him the Conservative Policy Warrior award from the Alabama Policy Institute in 2020 as well as a perfect 100 rating on the American Conservative Union’s 2021 scorecard. Andrew currently serves as Bylaws Chairman for the Alabama Republican Party and is a member of the State Financial Officers Foundation where he serves in leadership as the Auditor-At-Large.

Andrew is married to Hannah, and the couple have two daughters, Liberty and Glory. They are expecting their third child in September of 2025, and want the gender of that child to be “a surprise.”

For more information about Sorrell and his campaign, his campaign website is AndrewSorrell.com. His campaign can also be found on Facebook, Instagram and X.