Mobile County officials urge voters to check registration status after 37,000 found inactive during last mayoral election – fox10tv.com

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – Voter registration closes May 5 ahead of Alabama’s May 19 primary, and Mobile County officials are urging voters to check their status now.
The push follows last September’s mayoral runoff, when more than 37,000 voters showed up to the polls only to find their registration was inactive.
Mobile County Probate Judge Mark Erwin said he conducted what he called a “fairly deep investigation” into the mayoral runoff to better understand what led to so many voters running into issues at the polls. While the Probate court is not responsible for administrating city elections, Erwin said they can learn from those experiences for county elections.
Erwin said about 37,000 voters fell into the inactive category, often due to the Motor Voter Act, which was passed in 1993 to protect the national election process.
“Under the Motor Voter Act an audit is done every 4 years, and part of that process may create a situation where a voter’s status goes from active to inactive because of that audit,” Erwin said. “And some of those people were not aware that their status was moved when they went to vote in the city election. And so those who did not vote in the city election, may find themselves active.”
While officials strongly encourage voters to check their status ahead of time, Erwin said there are steps voters can take if they find themselves listed as inactive at the polls. He said voters can update their information on-site and still cast a regular ballot, and should not need to use a provisional one.
“They should not panic or be upset. It’s a very simple process,” Erwin said. “They go to the polling official and do a short update form to reactivate their voter registration, and they get a regular ballot at the poll and they vote a regular ballot on election day. It should take minimal extra time to do that to make sure they’re active going forward.”
Erwin said there are multiple safeguards in place to protect the integrity of the vote, including precinct-specific ballots and absentee ballots marked with special watermarks to ensure authenticity.
Voter registration closes May 5, 14 days before the election.
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