The Supreme Court Must Restore State Authority Over Our Voter Rolls

Guest Opinion by Wil Sanchez

Across Alabama, ordinary citizens have spent thousands of hours cross-referencing county voter rolls against public death records, court dockets, property registries, and residency databases. What we uncovered across the state is not a series of isolated glitches. It is a systemic pattern of administrative breakdown that erodes public trust in our democratic process.  

This is why we stand firmly behind Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and his 26-state amicus brief recently filed in the U.S. Supreme Court for Republican National Committee v. Mi Familia Vota. AG Marshall’s brief gets to the core of the issue: under the U.S. Constitution, states hold the primary authority to set and enforce voter qualifications.  

For decades, federal misinterpretations of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993—commonly known as the "Motor Voter" law—have tied the hands of state and local election officials. By creating arbitrary hurdles and rigid restriction periods, federal mandates prevent our 67 local county boards of registrars from keeping voter rolls accurate and up to date. In effect, these hurdles caused the registrars to break our own state laws, laws which give them the “authority” to evaluate if a citizen is eligible to be added to a voter roll to vote or not. 

The evidence gathered by grass-roots citizen teams across Alabama reveals the real-world impact of these federal constraints. Here are a few key examples: 

• County #1: Reviews identified 34,152 active registrations that met state criteria to be shifted to inactive status but remained on active rolls.  
• County #2: Citizen audits documented 33 active registrations tied to convicted sex offenders, 1,566 inactive voters, and registrations linked to vacant lots and commercial addresses.  
• County #3: Investigations uncovered over 200 administrative errors, including duplicate voter IDs and mathematically impossible registration dates—such as a voter born in 1964 with a listed registration date of 1908.  
• County #4: Local research revealed instances where deceased registrants, individuals convicted of disqualifying felonies, and persons declared mentally incompetent cast ballots in multiple elections.  
• County #5: Citizen audits showed voters remaining active years after moving out of state—including one former resident who relocated to New York in 2022 yet showed non-absentee voting history in Alabama in 2022 and 2024. Another 181 voters remained active despite having no voting record since before 2014.  
• County #6: Audits flagged a voter convicted of a disqualifying felony who cast ballots over 10 times while incarcerated, alongside registration files showing voter ages ranging from 17 down to negative numbers.  

When active registrations belong to deceased individuals, relocated voters, or disqualified felons, it weakens system integrity and opens the door to administrative chaos. Furthermore, as AG Marshall noted, two noncitizens recently pled guilty in federal court to voting in Alabama’s 2024 General Election—a direct consequence of federal rules that restrict states from routinely verifying citizenship. We are looking forward to hear of more prosecutions in the near future since, especially since the Secretary of State already identified 25 noncitizens who voted in 2024. 

As Attorney General Marshall emphasized in his Supreme Court filing, the NVRA was never intended to strip states of their constitutional responsibility to oversee elections. Lower courts, including the Ninth Circuit, have misinterpreted federal statutes to block states from requiring documentary proof of citizenship, removing noncitizens immediately upon discovery, and exercising state legislative sovereignty without being hamstrung by outdated consent decrees.  

Maintaining clean voter rolls is not about disenfranchising eligible citizens; it is about safeguarding the constitutional principle of "one person, one vote." When outdated or illegal registrations linger indefinitely, they dilute the voices of lawful voters and burden local county resources.  

The difference between a struggling state and a thriving one often rests entirely on how many of its citizens choose to participate when no one is forcing them to. This is exactly how we are making Alabama stronger. The findings from our counties prove that state and local registrars need full, unhindered authority to audit, verify, and maintain their voter rolls. The U.S. Supreme Court must seize this opportunity to restore state authority over election administration and protect the integrity of our elections. We commend Attorney General Steve Marshall for leading this multi-state effort. 

Wil Sanchez is a concerned Autauga County resident, voter, and taxpayer working to preserve our freedoms for the next generation. 

Opinions do not reflect the views and opinions of ALPolitics.com. ALPolitics.com makes no claims nor assumes any responsibility for the information and opinions expressed above.