Prefiled Bill Would Lower Cost of Alabama Voter Rolls
HB67 caps cost of voter rolls at $1,000, removes most identifying data
A bill has been pre-filed for the 2026 session of the Alabama Legislature that would significantly change access to Alabama’s voter rolls.
HB67, introduced by State Representative Jamie Kiel (R-Russellville) caps the cost of an electronic copy of the voters at $1,000. It also provides for the removal of confidential information from the lists, and prohibit its use for commercial purposes.
At present, Alabama’s cost to purchase a copy of the voter rolls is often cited as $38,000. Data from Ballotpedia lists Alabama at $37,000–often reported as ~$37–38K because Alabama charges $0.01 per voter record and has between 3.7M and 3.8M registered voters.
The five next-highest State charges, again from Ballotpedia, are:
- Nevada — $20,000
- Wisconsin — $12,500
- New Mexico — $5,215
- Louisiana — $5,000
- South Carolina — $2,500. (Note: South Dakota and Tennessee also list $2,500; there is a three-way price tie at that level.)
Additionally, thirty two States and the District of Columbia have open availability, meaning there are effectively no restrictions on purchasers. Alabama is one of those “open” States, where the only barrier to purchasing the rolls is the price. Fifteen states have mixed availability, meaning certain types of individuals or groups can purchase information that is unavailable to others. Four states have restricted availability, meaning only certain types of individuals or groups can purchase the voter file.
The price of Alabama’s voter rolls has long been a contentious issue for citizen election integrity groups and political candidates, especially those in smaller local races. Having a copy of the rolls is essential for campaign strategies and to perform independent analysis and post-election canvassing. HB67 would be a significant step forward in supporting these efforts, and as such is expected to garner wide support.
Some critics of HB67 have pointed out that the bill does not make a distinction between the cost of purchasing the entire roll versus a small portion, such as a single County or City. Others have expressed concern to ALpolitics.com that the large amount of material the bill redacts—including birth date, telephone number and email address—makes identifying fraudulent voters essentially impossible.
Supporters of the bill point out that these redactions are done out of respect for privacy concerns, and that Alabama’s AVID system has been emplaced to clean the rolls and reduce voter fraud. Additionally, the $1,000 cost, while significant, is much lower than the current price.
HB67 is co-sponsored by Reps. Brown, Moore (P), Bedsole, Oliver, Lamb, DuBose, Reynolds, Gidley, Mooney, Brinyark, Smith, Crawford, Shaw, Ingram, Whorton, Fincher, Stadthagen, Kirkland, Bolton, Rehm, Paschal, Hammett, Marques, Lipscomb, Faulkner, Ross, Carns, Pettus, Underwood, Paramore, Givens, Wilcox and Stubbs.
The pre-filed text of HB67 is available at THIS LINK.
