John Merrill has defeated Heather Milam to win a second term as Alabama's secretary of state.
Incomplete unofficial election results show Merrill with 61.9 percent of the vote to Milam's 38.1 percent with 74 percent of precincts reporting.
"We're excited about having the opportunity to serve the citizens of Alabama in another term as their 53rd secretary of state," Merrill said to The Plainsman.
Merrill has served as Alabama’s secretary of state since 2015. Before that he served as the representative for Alabama House District 62, which includes Tuscaloosa, where he settled after attending the University of Alabama.
"We serve all of the citizens of Alabama," Merrill said. "It doesn't matter if they're black, white, male or female. We serve all Alabamians and we're going to continue to do that."
During his campaign, Merrill championed Alabama’s high voter registration numbers which were achieved during his tenure as secretary of state. When Merrill took office in January 2015, there were just over 3 million people registered to vote in Alabama.
As of September, which is the last time the voter registration numbers have been updated on the secretary of state’s website, 3.43 million people have registered to vote in Alabama. Merrill has said this is in part because of his commitment to ensuring every board of registrars office in Alabama is open the same hours as the court houses.
“We have raised the awareness of voter education and participation unlike anybody in the history of this office,” Merrill told The Plainsman in an October interview. “We will continue to educate voters through small groups as we have done around the state as well as in large settings as well as through press releases, social media and make sure they are informed about the elections process.”
He plans to continue to expand electronic voter registration and business filings to make it easier to do business in Alabama, Merrill said after he was re-elected.
Merrill also championed efficiency during his campaign. While in office, the secretary of state’s office decreased by 11 people yet the office’s efficiency rose, Merrill said.
Merrill gave the example of business filings to showcase his office’s newfound efficiency.
When he took office, the secretary of state’s office was several months behind in processing business filings. As of Oct. 2, the office has gone 122 consecutive weeks with handling same-day filing and processing for business filings.
Another large point of Merrill’s campaign was he provided his cell phone number to all Alabamians so they can reach them whenever they needed to. He said he planed to continue that practice if re-elected because he wants to be a resource for all Alabamians.
“It gives me the privilege to help the 4.8 million Alabamians that reside in our state,” Merrill said. “Whenever they have an issue they can’t resolve for themselves and they need assistance, I pride myself on being the most accessible elected official in the state.”
This is one of the reasons Merrill is active on social media. It is one of the main ways he keeps Alabamians informed about what he and the secretary of state’s office are doing.
But Merrill’s social media activity has also drawn scrutiny. Merrill is currently being sued for blocking three Alabamians on Twitter. The case was filed in the Middle District of Alabama U.S. District Court in late September.
Merrill did not have a comment about the lawsuit after he was re-elected.
Merrill said he believes the lawsuit is politically motivated and designed to draw negative attention to his blocking because the people named were blocked in 2017 and did not attempt to contact him in any other way until the lawsuit in September 2018.
Merrill’s opponent, Milam pushed for automatic voter registration, early voting and polling place location expansions during her campaign, she told The Plainsman.
While Merrill served his first term, his office began a mobile photo ID program where the secretary of state’s office would provide a mobile unit in each county at least once a year to provide photo IDs to voters. Milam said she thinks Alabama needs to do more than put a mobile unit in one location in a county for a couple hours on day.
Milam learned the ins and outs of Alabama politics while running her own newspaper for seven years, which is why she decided to run for secretary of state.
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Elizabeth, senior in journalism and political science, is the community editor for The Plainsman
