Morgan County Republican Party chairman Julie Clausen questioned whether Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen is complying with a residency requirement to reside in Montgomery while serving as secretary of state.
Allen said he clearly meets the residency requirement.
Allen financed a candidate challenge of former Alabama Republican Party (ALGOP) chairman John Wahl in January. Both Allen and Wahl are candidates in the May 19 Republican primary to be Alabama's next lieutenant governor.
The Allen campaign paid the Al Agricola Law Firm $20,000 on January 26, according to Allen’s January campaign finance filing. Agricola then filed a candidate challenge against Wahl, questioning his residency on behalf of former State Rep. Gil Isbell on January 30.
Isbell confirmed to 1819 News on Monday that the Allen campaign bankrolled the challenge against Wahl.
"This was a joint effort of seeking the truth," Isbell said.
Clausen said in a press release, “As a leader in the Republican Party, I am very concerned about Wes Allen secretly passing $20,000 under the table to pay for a case to get his opponent disqualified.”
“That is an abuse of the party’s ballot challenge process and raises a lot of ethical questions for many party members,” she added.
Clausen also said members of the Alabama Republican Party are calling on Allen to “address serious questions regarding his own compliance with Alabama’s residency requirements.”
Section 118 of the Alabama Constitution states that the Secretary of State must “reside at the state capital during the time they continue in office.” Alabama’s state capital is Montgomery.
According to Clausen, publicly available records “raise significant questions about whether Secretary Allen is meeting that requirement. According to public property tax records, Allen maintains a homestead exemption on a residence in Pike County, not Montgomery. Additionally, voter registration records show Allen is registered to vote at a Pike County address, rather than in Montgomery, where the Constitution requires him to reside while serving in office.”
Clausen said the situation “raises troubling questions that need to be answered.”
“Does Secretary Allen actually maintain a residence in Montgomery as required by the Alabama Constitution? And if he claims to have some form of residence there, how can he justify using residency arguments to try to disqualify John Wahl while facing similar questions himself? If Wes Allen believes residency requirements are important enough to spend $20,000 trying to remove a political opponent from the ballot, then those same standards must apply to him,” Clausen said.
Clausen also said records show that Allen is not just registered to vote in Pike County, but has consistently voted there, even though the Alabama Constitution requires him to reside in Montgomery during his time in office.
“Let’s be clear: using the same legal arguments that Secretary Allen paid an attorney to make against John Wahl, he has either been illegally serving as Secretary of State by failing to meet the residency requirement, or he has been committing voter fraud in Pike County,” Clausen said. “There’s no way to get around that fact. Secretary Allen must immediately clarify his residency status and explain how it complies with the requirements set forth in Section 118 of the Alabama Constitution. Alabama voters deserve to know whether the person responsible for overseeing our elections is following the laws.”
Allen told 1819 News on Thursday that he clearly meets the residency requirement to serve as secretary of state, explaining that he rents an apartment in Montgomery.
“I rent an apartment in Montgomery and have during the entirety of my service as Secretary of State,” Allen said. “I have a lease on that apartment and have paid rent monthly for that entire time. As a matter of fact, I was at the apartment last night. The law requires a residence, not a primary residence, and I clearly meet that requirement. My primary home is in Pike County, Alabama, which is less than an hour’s drive from the Capitol.”
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