The Southern Poverty Law Center released a report today saying that Alabama is falling short on laws and policies that would make it easier to vote.

The report, “Alive and Well: Voter Suppression and Election Mismanagement in Alabama,” said Alabama is one of the hardest places to register and cast a ballot.

“As other states have expanded access to the ballot box with sound policies for early voting, voter registration and voting by mail, Alabama’s policies, as this report shows, create and perpetuate obstacles, particularly for voters in marginalized communities,” the report says.

Secretary of State John Merrill, whose responsibilities include serving as the state’s top election official, said he had not read the report but denounced the overall message.

“This report was conceived, written and released by the Southern Poverty Law Center for one reason,” Merrill said. “To promote the goals and the purposes of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Period."

Read the SPLC report.

Merrill said voter registration and participation are at record highs in the state. Merrill said more than 1.4 million people have registered to vote in Alabama since he took office in January 2015, bringing the total number registered to almost 3.6 million. Merrill said 96% of eligible African Americans are registered and 94% of those eligible overall are registered.

“And every one of those, the 1.4 million, and the 3.5 million, I can give you the name, the address, the birth date, the Social Security number, the driver’s license number, the phone number, the email address of every person,” Merrill said. “They (the SPLC) can’t give you jack.”

The SPLC disputes those numbers.

“The U.S. Census Bureau, which produces the most accurate and widely accepted voter registration statistics in the nation, estimates that about 69 percent of eligible Alabamians are registered to vote,” the report says. "That’s about 2.4 million registered voters –more than 1 million fewer than claimed by the secretary of state’s office."

The SPLC said its analysis of the voter rolls shows that about 768,000 were registered since January 2015.

The report questions whether Merrill’s registration numbers are inflated because they include voters whose registrations are no longer valid because they have died or moved away.

Merrill said the rolls are updated regularly and that 860,000 have been removed from the rolls since he was in office.

“I know what the numbers are,” Merrill said. “Those numbers are factual.”

As for voting policies, the SPLC said Alabama should allow early voting, election-day voter registration, and voting by mail without having to give a reason. Those policies would require the Legislature to change election laws.

Early voting would allow voters to cast their ballots in person on days preceding election day. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Alabama is one of only nine states that does not allow some variation of in-person voting before election day. Among the early voting states are southern states Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida.

Merrill said Alabama tried early voting on a pilot basis in 2000 and participation was low. He said early voting would increase costs but that it has not increased voter participation in other states.

Twenty-one states allow voters to register and vote on election day, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Merrill said he opposed election day registration. Alabama requires voters to register 14 days before election day.

“Now, with the way the law is we know they’re eligible to vote before they cast their ballot,” Merrill said. “I’m not for causing confusion. I’m for clearing up confusion.”

Also, 33 states allow people to cast ballots by mail without having to give a reason. In Alabama, voters requesting an absentee ballot must give a reason, such as being out of the county on election day, unable to go to the polls because of physical illness or infirmity, a work shift of 10 hours or more while the polls are open, being a member or spouse of a member of the military, or attending a college outside their home county.

Last year, the Legislature passed a bill supported by Merrill that allowed two additional reasons for absentee voting -- for caregivers of relatives confined to home and for incarcerated people who have not committed a crime that disqualified them from voting.

In 2017, Merrill supported a bill by Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, that would have eliminated the requirement to give a reason for absentee voting. It did not pass.