The ACLU of Alabama says it is “stunned” by Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill’s statements about crossover voters, including comments attributed to Merrill in an interview with ThinkProgress. Merrill said those who knowingly and willingly violated the law should go to prison and pay a hefty fine, according to the publication. “I want every one of them that meets that criteria to be sentenced to five years in the penitentiary and to pay a $15,000 fine for restitution,” Merrill said in the article. Merrill told AL.com it was important to stress that me meant willful violators, including those who might have broken the law to make a point.
“The point is that anybody that knowingly and willfully violated the law intentionally, that did not agree with the law, that wanted to show that the law was not a good law in their estimation, thought the law may have been a stupid law, thought the law shouldn’t have been enforced, if they had that mindset, and they elected to violate the trust and the confidence of the electoral process by not being a qualified elector and still voting, even though they had voted in the Democrat primary and knew they were not supposed to be eligible to vote.
“If they did all of those things, then I think they should be identified. If the investigation warrants that they are culpable, they should be indicted and they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, period.”
Full Article: Alabama Secretary of State: 5-year prison sentences for intentional crossover voters | AL.com.