OWENS CROSS ROADS — With a promise to deliver secure, transparent, and fair elections, state and Madison County officials opened a center for elections management and probate court archives Monday.
The site, a former skating rink, will store election equipment, including voting machines. The machines will also be programmed, tested, and secured at the center. On election days, the building will be the base of operations for Madison County’s polling sites.
“Elections matter. Election integrity matters,” said Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen. “I got a chance to travel to all 67 counties throughout this state. And that’s what I heard loud and clear on the campaign trail back in ’22.”
Allen thanked all of those involved in securing elections throughout the state.
“If it were not for probate judges like Frank Barger and those throughout the state and circuit clerks and sheriffs and boards of registrars, we would not have strong elections as we do inside the state of Alabama,” Allen said. “It’s not because of the Secretary of State’s office. It’s because of men and women like Frank Barger and the job that they do day in and day out to hold strong elections in the state of Alabama.
“The facility you are witnessing takes a lot of hard work, a lot of collaboration, and it just doesn’t happen. Everything rises and falls on leadership. And you certainly have great leadership in this community.”
Madison County Commission Chairman Mac McCutcheon touted the legacy of those who have worked throughout their careers to ensure integrity in Alabama’s elections.
“Madison County has a history of protecting the integrity of our election process,” he said. “Today, we also celebrate that history with our former elected officials and those chief clerks. They’re here. We come to recognize them and the work that they have done in preparing us to be at this point today, we still have integrity in our election process.
“I just want to say, from the County Commission’s standpoint, a representative of this county and the people of it, we are second to none when it comes to respecting our election process and protecting the voter and running that process the way it should be.”
Barger revealed, despite the high cost of building the facility, it is still under budget.
“The commission has been very generous in their investment of about $1.7 million in this facility,” he said. “We could have not built this facility or bought the property this facility is on today for what we were projecting just to build new a few years ago,” Barger said. “When you start peeling back layers of a nearly 30-year-old structure, you find things you didn’t know that you would find.
“We don’t always agree on the process, but we always have one thing in mind, and that’s to deliver a secure, transparent, and fair election to every member of our community.”
The facility is at 6921 U.S. 431 South.
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