Montgomery County Probate Judge Steven Reed Thursday said just 34 of over 15,000 votes were flagged as possible crossover voters in last month’s Republican Senate runoff, and that the actual numbers might be far lower. “To say this is much ado about nothing would be a dramatic understatement,” Reed said in a phone interview. “I’m not even sure why this is being discussed. That’s not a major issue at all.” The Alabama Legislature earlier this year banned voters who cast ballots in one party’s primary from voting in another party’s runoff. The new law made such crossover voting a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $15,000 fine. The law only applies to primaries and runoffs. All registered voters can cast ballots in the Dec. 12 general election for Alabama’s junior U.S. Senate seat.
Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill earlier this month sent the state’s probate judges a list of 674 voters — out of 480,000 ballots cast, or one-tenth of one percent — who may have cast crossover ballots.
Reed said 14 of the names provided to him by the Secretary of State involved scanning errors. His office, he said, could not determine whether the remaining 20 votes were due to voter actions or poll worker errors, like workers entering an incorrect voting history for the voter. But he said “90 to 95 percent of those voters are over the age of 70.”
Full Article: Steven Reed questions focus on crossover voters.