Monday, the Alabama Secretary of State’s office issued a statement on an ad produced by the super PAC Highway 31, which is promoting the candidacy of Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Doug Jones in next week’s special election.
The ad claims that votes are “public record” and one’s “community” would know if they did what was necessary to defeat Jones’ opponent Republican Roy Moore.
“If you don’t vote, and Roy Moore – a child predator – wins, could you live with that? Your vote is public record and your community will know whether or not you helped stop Roy Moore,” she said.
The statement calls the ad “a targeted effort to misinform and confuse voters,” but says it has not received follow-up information from the Highway 31 PAC.
Statement as follows:
MONTGOMERY – In the Alabama Secretary of State Office’s continued efforts to empower and encourage all Alabama residents to participate in the electoral process, one issue our office must work toward is the reconciliation of any instance whereby voter confusion is presented.
Reports from several sources indicate a targeted effort to misinform and confuse voters regarding whether an individuals’ voting record would be available to the public. No individual voting record is made available to anyone at anytime, including the voter who cast the ballot.
When voters cast a ballot the State of Alabama’s voter registration system is updated to document the election that a voter participated in but no record is ever made documenting the candidate for whom the ballot was cast.
In the Alabama Primary and Primary Run-off Elections a record is made which would indicate whether a voter had voted in either the Democrat or Republican party race but the name of the candidate for whom the voter cast their ballot is never recorded.
Additionally, in Alabama, voters do not provide political party affiliation when they register to vote because the state does not track that information.
A link to a recorded copy of the ad as reported to the Secretary of State’s Office is available below.
We have communicated with the individual(s) that created the video and have expressed to them the misinterpretations presented in this political commercial. At the time of this release follow-up communication had not yet been received.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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