Merrill to Testify Before Congressional Committee
Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill heads to Washington to testify before Congress Wednesday about election security. Merrill is one of a handful of state and local election officials giving feedback on a bill meant to improve the nation’s voting laws. He says he has issues with some of the provisions in the proposed legislation.
“They indicate federal overreach and they indicate some level of unfunded or underfunded mandates for the states or local areas,” Merrill says of the proposed bill. Some of the provisions, including paper ballots and accountability audits, are things Alabama already does or plans to do, he says.
But practices such as same-day voter registration and early voting are not available to Alabama voters. Merrill says they’re not necessary. “We have less than 300,000 people in the state of Alabama that are not registered to vote,” he says. The state has registered voters in record numbers, he says. And he says early voting hasn’t been proven to significantly increase voter participation. Research shows its effect on turnout is unclear.
Merrill says Alabama is doing well in the area of election security, citing a two-factor authentication system introduced last year. That requires multiple levels of authentication before someone is added to the rolls. And removing names from the voter rolls using information from various state agencies, including the Department of Corrections, he says, further ensures election security. Voting rights advocates have argued those and other measures have made it harder for people to vote in Alabama. Updates to the state’s voter rolls in 2017 frustrated many residents.
A committee reporting to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has been looking into voter access in Alabama.
Merrill says he isn’t terribly concerned about potential hacking into the state election system. But he says he’d like to be able learn of a breach quickly.
A livestream of the hearing will be available here.
Outage at Amazon Web Services disrupts websites across the internet
Amazon's cloud computing service provides back-end support to many companies that operate online. When it has problems, so do they.
9th Circuit rules that National Guard can deploy to Portland
The appeals court overturned the ruling of a lower court judge in Oregon, and clears the way for President Trump to deploy the National Guard to Portland.
This isn’t the Louvre’s first high-profile heist. Here’s a history of earlier thefts
Masked thieves stole priceless jewels from the Louvre on Sunday morning. The Paris museum has suffered a string of successful art heists, dating back to the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911.
Trump’s fake video featured ‘Danger Zone.’ Musician Kenny Loggins wants it scrubbed
The "Danger Zone" singer is asking for his performance to be deleted from a fake "King Trump" video that the president posted to Truth Social on Saturday.
Cannabis works better than opioids for back pain, in two European studies
Millions of Americans use weed to treat chronic pain, but there's little high quality research on whether it works. New findings suggest it can be effective for low back pain, on par with opioids.
Can collagen supplements improve your skin? Here’s what the research shows
With age comes wisdom. And wrinkles. And joint pain. In wellness circles, the buzz is that collagen supplements can help with all these concerns. But are these claims something you should swallow?
