A tax-exempt organization that promotes voter registration for people of color, unmarried women, and young people says that Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen “grossly mischaracterized” their mass mail efforts in the state.

Allen stands by his comments and says the organization, which plans to mail 138,000 letters to Alabama households this year, is not nonpartisan, as it claims, but focuses on Democrat-leaning segments of the electorate.

Allen sent out a news release Monday warning voters about what he said were “misleading” and “confusing” mailers from the Voter Participation Center and the Center for Voter Information.

“On two occasions, this Office was contacted on behalf of Voter Participation Center and Center for Voter Information regarding a mailer they planned to send to Alabama citizens,” Allen said. “In response, I strongly discouraged the group’s plan to mass mail our citizens. This type of targeted, partisan interference by out-of-state, third-party organizations is unnecessary, confusing, and counterproductive.”

In response to Allen, Tom Lopach, president and CEO of the Voter Participation Center and the Center for Voter Information, released a statement Monday.

“The goal of the Voter Participation Center (VPC) and Center for Voter Information (CVI) is to register and turn out eligible voters in Alabama,” Lopach said. “This is non-partisan work and its aim is one that all election administrators should support. This is about bringing democracy to eligible American’s doorsteps.”

Lopach said the Voter Participation Center and the Center for Voter Information have helped more than 6.1 million people register to vote since 2003.

“Our hope is that all election officials will support our efforts to promote democracy, instead of misleading and alarming voters about our effective and non-partisan voter registration programs,” Lopach said.

The Voter Participation Center is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, meaning it is considered a charitable organization that is not for profit and operates on tax-exempt contributions.

Lopach said the voter registration efforts focus on what the organization says are groups that are underrepresented on the rolls of registered voters – people of color, unmarried women, and youth (ages 18-35). The organization calls those three groups “the New American Majority” and says they include 150 million people, or 64% of the people who can vote.

In Alabama, 38.8% of people in those groups are not registered to vote, as compared to 24.3% unregistered among people not in those groups, the organization says. The numbers are based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 voting and election supplement. Lopach said the mission of the VPC and CVI is to close the gap, which equates to about 465,000 more unregistered voters in Alabama in the three groups than among other voters.

Lopach said the first mailers in Alabama this year went out last week. He said another round is planned for late May or early June and a third around Labor Day. The VPC and CVI have been doing work off-and-on in Alabama since 2006, he said.

Lopach said the mailers include the same voter registration applications available on the secretary of state’s website and at county registration offices. They have pre-addressed, postage-paid envelopes. Some include a QR code that directs recipients to the VPC voter registration app, which is powered by the Rock the Vote organization.

The VPC and CVI send out three main types of mailers. One is a birthday greeting to people who have just turned 18, letting them know they are eligible to vote. A second type goes to people who have moved to remind them about the importance of registering at their new address. The third type goes to areas where large numbers of people of color live, and specifically to households where nobody is registered to vote or where it appears there are multiple people who are eligible to vote but only one registered.

The mailers include disclaimers saying the VPC and CVI are a nonpartisan, nonprofit group and not a government entity.

On Tuesday, Allen issued a new statement reiterating his concerns from Monday.

“The response issued by the Voter Participation Center and Center for Voter Information fails to refute and, in fact, advances our position that these groups are using targeted, partisan tactics,” Allen said. “The claim that these groups are nonpartisan is false and is completely contradicted when the groups publicly reveal their targeted demographic to be primarily Democratic voter blocks.”

Lopach was asked if the fact that Black voters in Alabama overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates undermines the organization’s claim that its mailing programs are nonpartisan.

“I cannot speak to how people vote,” Lopach said. “We are nonpartisan. We know that the communities we serve are under-registered compared to white folks in Alabama.”

Lopach said elections should be a contest of ideas and that the goal should be to have as many people as possible registered and voting.

“Seems to me that’s how a democracy ought to run,” said Lopach, a Montana native and former chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana and former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, both Democrats.

“That work is different than what I do now,” Lopach said. “I run a nonprofit now that is nonpartisan.”

Allen said his goal is to have all eligible Alabamians registered and voting, not specific segments of the electorate.

“These groups’ unsolicited efforts to advance a political agenda directly contradict this ideal and are not welcome in Alabama,” Allen said.

Lopach, asked why it would not be better to promote registration for all voters, instead of certain segments, said that would be outside the mission and beyond the capabilities of the VPC and CVI.

“First of all, we’re a nonprofit,” Lopach said. “And we do this all with charitable funding. And we don’t have enough funding to do everybody, everywhere across the country.

“Second, our mission, as a nonprofit, is to help register and turn out underrepresented populations. So our focus, our mission, our work, is with underrepresented populations. Somebody else can do work with overrepresented populations. Our mission is very much those who are underrepresented in the electorate.”

Allen said the secretary of state’s office has in previous election cycles received complaints of similar registration mailers that were prefilled with incorrect information. He said that causes confusion.

Lopach said the registration forms in the mailers are prefilled to increase the response rate. He said the prefilling on the form includes address, city, state and zip code, and in some cases, the name of the potential voter at the address. The letters include a P.S. note that if the prefilled information is incorrect, the voter should cross it out and enter the correct information.

Lopach said about 1% to 5% of mailers that go out result in a new voter registrations, which he said is a good response rate for direct mail.

Allen said the fact that the organization acknowledges some of mailers contain incorrect information helps make his point.

“Further, I would like to make very clear that the only ‘misleading and alarming’ message to Alabama citizens has been at the hands of VPC and CVI,” Allen said. “VPC and CVI are unable to deny the instances of errors in their mailers and, in fact, instruct the Alabama citizens who will inevitably receive inaccurately pre-filled mailers to discard them.”

On Tuesday, Allen’s office sent out a news release that April 1 is the last day to register in order to participate in the April 16 primary runoff. More information is available on the secretary of state’s voter registration webpage or at the offices of county boards of registrars.