John Merrill and his wife, Cindy, made a campaign stop on Tuesday, August 14 at the Coal and Iron Building. (Submitted Photo)
By Marla Jones, Reporter • marla@southerntorch.com
FORT PAYNE, Ala. — (Full Video of our interview on Facebook) Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill made his first of many campaign stops across the state last Tuesday at Fort Payne’s Coal and Iron Building.
Merrill kicked off his fundraising campaign with a meet and greet in DeKalb County.
“We’re excited to be up here in DeKalb County talking about the work that we have done in the last three and a half years and what we hope to do in another term,” said Merrill. Merrill has served as the Secretary of State of Alabama since January 2015. In the 2014 election, he carried 53 of Alabama’s 67 counties with 65% of the vote. Prior to his service in this office, he served for one term in the Alabama House of Representatives.
In the 2018 primary election, Merrill carried 87% of the votes in the state for his race.
Merrill has once again made it his mission to visit all 67 of Alabama’s counties and to stop voter fraud. On the national scale, he addressed the ongoing scandal with Russian interference in the 2018 election by informing that he had attended several meetings on the subject. He stated that it was his goal to make every vote count.
In a statement released on Facebook, Merrill said:
“We had a great time at the Coal and Iron Building in Fort Payne last night [Tuesday] as we visited with many old friends and made several new friends in DeKalb County! These rock solid conservatives are very supportive of efficiency in government as well as our efforts to stop voter fraud.”
The Office of the Alabama Secretary of State predates our statehood. Merrill said that the Office is responsible for more than 1,000 jobs but the main functions are election administration, voter registration, campaign finance, licensing and trademarking for new businesses, and international adoptions.
Merrill will face Democrat Heather Milam in the general election.
