Washington, D.C. — Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Elections during a hearing titled “Revisiting the 2024 Elections with Secretaries of State.” The hearing, held on Tuesday, focused on election administration and integrity measures taken across the nation during the 2024 election cycle.
During his testimony, Secretary Allen emphasized efforts undertaken in Alabama to improve the accuracy of the state’s voter rolls and highlighted challenges his office faced in obtaining federal data critical to maintaining voter integrity.
“Since taking office more than half a million ineligible voters have been removed from our state’s voter file,” Allen stated. “Our voter file, which was a bloated mess on the day I took office, is now the most accurate record of eligible voters our state has ever had.”
Allen credited these efforts with contributing to what he described as a successful and secure election process in Alabama during the 2024 cycle, noting that “election integrity was the primary goal and that goal was achieved.”
In his testimony, Allen raised concerns about two specific federal barriers he said hindered his office’s election preparation. The first involved what he described as a lengthy and complicated process to access the Social Security Administration’s National Master Death Index, a tool used to remove deceased individuals from voter rolls.
“The immediate removal of deceased voters from our voter file should be common sense,” Allen said, urging Congress to ease access for states. “Unnecessary red tape makes it more difficult than it should be.”
Allen also cited difficulties in accessing noncitizen data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) under the previous federal administration. He praised a recent executive order from President Donald Trump that directs the Department of Homeland Security to cooperate with states in sharing noncitizen data for voter roll maintenance.
“Granting states immediate access to this data is crucial,” Allen told the subcommittee. “Only United States citizens should participate in our elections.”
The hearing brought together election officials from across the country to discuss best practices, challenges, and recommendations for strengthening voter confidence and ensuring fair elections. The testimony from Secretary Allen reflected ongoing debates at both state and federal levels over election security, data sharing, and the role of federal agencies in supporting state election systems.
