Alabama GOP Chairman John Wahl has made news over the last year or so for being a classic moral and legal hypocrite. Being an Alabama Republican, Wahl has spent most of his political mouthpiece time trying to promote all things Donald Trump, but all things Donald Trump is synonymous with all things Republican at this point. One of those things that Republicans champion beyond almost all else is voter suppression laws. Laws like forcing all registered voters to have a voter ID. The reason they do this is in order to help shave off majority rule in elections. The reason they want to get rid of majority rule in a democracy is because the Republican Party does not represent the majority of Americans. It only represents the billionaire class.
Being the Alabama GOP chairman, Wahl is a big supporter of voter ID laws. It is this fact that made a story about retired TVA supervisor at a power plant, Clyde Martin—who had been fired from being a volunteer poll worker—gain traction. Martin was relieved of his duties shortly after asking Wahl and his family to present their proper voter identifications. In Alabama, a proper ID means federally issued or state-issued identification like a passport, driver’s license, military ID, or college student ID. Wahl’s excuse at the time was that he and his family have a religious exemption. “Amish, Mennonites, and other Anabaptists are well known for their concerns about pictures or the way pictures are used. They are definitely not normal in our modern culture, but they shouldn’t be attacked or discriminated against for choosing a different lifestyle.”
Of course, according to MSN, “Wahl regularly posts his own photos on social media, including at least one photo of himself shortly after he voted.” More importantly, Martin says that the issue with Wahl wasn’t that he didn’t show a photo ID. The issue was that the photo ID he showed the poll worker was some made-up badge. It gets better.
RELATED STORY: Ted Cruz makes the mistake of asking a law expert which voter ID laws are racist on live TV
According to a brand new report from AL.com, this “ID” Wahl presented to Martin at the polls was one the Alabama Republican Party chairman has used the “last few times” he has been at the polls. According to reports, the identification badge with a barcode and a picture of Wahl claims to show Wahl is “a media representative for State Auditor Jim Zeigler.” Here’s the twist! The Alabama Department of Finance, the department that issues identifications for Ziegler, told Al.com they a) never issued one to Wahl, and b) don’t have Wahl on any of their previous rolls of employees.
This fact has led Wahl to tell reporters that he created this identification card himself! But, no worries, this very not legal not official identification card—the one Wahl tried to pass off as a valid voter identification card—was made with “Ziegler’s permission.” Would you like to know how little of a shit election law gives about Wahl’s fake identification? Secretary of State John Merrill told Al.com that it “does not meet the standard of any voter ID requirements listed under 17-9-30.”
Wahl’s family, not John Wahl himself, have long been on the record that they absolutely are against photo ID laws. In 2016, Wahl’s oldest brother, Joshua, gave a deposition about his and his family’s beliefs in service of the NAACP’s fight against such laws. In the Wahl’s case, their reasons were obviously religious ones and not the racial ones most of us are familiar with.
According to that report, John Wahl’s oldest brother testified that not everybody in his family held the same beliefs as he did, though some did. Clearly Wahl doesn’t as long as he can grow his political power. During the testimony, while Joshua didn’t mention John, he did say that only one of his siblings had a photo ID.
It is important to note here that back in 2017, Republican Rep. Kerry Rich of Alabama started working on an amendment to the voter ID law that would have allowed families like the Wahls a chance to meet with poll workers before elections in order to be able to identify them without an identification image. That amendment fell to pieces as the sheer racism Rich tried to thread this amendment with was so coarse even conservatives had to bail.
When asked about whether his amendment ideas for the Mennonites and Amish in Alabama and their religious freedom extended to other religions with less heterogeneous parishioners, Rich said this: "Some people have said this might apply to Muslims. It would not apply to Muslims. They do not object to having their photo taken. There was some controversy in some state where someone had refused to take their burka off a female to have their photo taken, but their face would still show."
RELATED STORY: This is personal: GOP voter suppression stopped my voice from being heard, but we can fight back
John Wahl’s family seems to have stopped voting since 2018. Only Wahl and his dad have voted consistently. Wahl has tried to blame poll workers for his family being disenfranchised by the crap voter ID laws he and his party champion. In the end though, losing five conservative Christian Wahl family votes while disenfranchising large swaths of Black Alabamans is the kind of sacrifice the GOP is willing to make.
Meanwhile, reporter Kyle Whitmire has been dogging Wahl for an explanation of who exactly made the identification. After Wahl evasively lied about who made it, he came back to say that he made it with Ziegler after doing volunteer work setting up email systems for the state auditor. When Whitmire first asked Ziegler about this identification, Ziegler said: “My recollection is, before he was ever party chairman, I was doing one of my many investigations and he helped do it. And I remember vaguely something about he needed some ID that he could legitimately do this for me. That’s all I remember.”
Ziegler’s new response to Whitmire lines up a bit more with Wahl, without actually admitting to how fake Wahl’s identification card really is.
As Whitmire rightly points out, there’s a mysterious barcode that lines up with nothing. Wahl has been vague about what the barcode was for, if it is a real barcode with anything meaningful attached to it, or even if it’s just put there to make the card look that much more official.
The final stain on Wahl’s entire voting hypocrisy is this: According to the records shown Whitmire, the poll worker Clyde Martin, the one Wahl had replaced in 2022 after showing his bogus made-up identification card, had let him pass with the very same bogus card in 2020. And while Wahl does have a driver’s license that is a legal identification card in Alabama, Wahl insisted on trying to use this fake ID.
Being the Alabama GOP chairman, Wahl is a big supporter of voter ID laws. It is this fact that made a story about retired TVA supervisor at a power plant, Clyde Martin—who had been fired from being a volunteer poll worker—gain traction. Martin was relieved of his duties shortly after asking Wahl and his family to present their proper voter identifications. In Alabama, a proper ID means federally issued or state-issued identification like a passport, driver’s license, military ID, or college student ID. Wahl’s excuse at the time was that he and his family have a religious exemption. “Amish, Mennonites, and other Anabaptists are well known for their concerns about pictures or the way pictures are used. They are definitely not normal in our modern culture, but they shouldn’t be attacked or discriminated against for choosing a different lifestyle.”
Of course, according to MSN, “Wahl regularly posts his own photos on social media, including at least one photo of himself shortly after he voted.” More importantly, Martin says that the issue with Wahl wasn’t that he didn’t show a photo ID. The issue was that the photo ID he showed the poll worker was some made-up badge. It gets better.
RELATED STORY: Ted Cruz makes the mistake of asking a law expert which voter ID laws are racist on live TV
According to a brand new report from AL.com, this “ID” Wahl presented to Martin at the polls was one the Alabama Republican Party chairman has used the “last few times” he has been at the polls. According to reports, the identification badge with a barcode and a picture of Wahl claims to show Wahl is “a media representative for State Auditor Jim Zeigler.” Here’s the twist! The Alabama Department of Finance, the department that issues identifications for Ziegler, told Al.com they a) never issued one to Wahl, and b) don’t have Wahl on any of their previous rolls of employees.
This fact has led Wahl to tell reporters that he created this identification card himself! But, no worries, this very not legal not official identification card—the one Wahl tried to pass off as a valid voter identification card—was made with “Ziegler’s permission.” Would you like to know how little of a shit election law gives about Wahl’s fake identification? Secretary of State John Merrill told Al.com that it “does not meet the standard of any voter ID requirements listed under 17-9-30.”
Wahl’s family, not John Wahl himself, have long been on the record that they absolutely are against photo ID laws. In 2016, Wahl’s oldest brother, Joshua, gave a deposition about his and his family’s beliefs in service of the NAACP’s fight against such laws. In the Wahl’s case, their reasons were obviously religious ones and not the racial ones most of us are familiar with.
According to that report, John Wahl’s oldest brother testified that not everybody in his family held the same beliefs as he did, though some did. Clearly Wahl doesn’t as long as he can grow his political power. During the testimony, while Joshua didn’t mention John, he did say that only one of his siblings had a photo ID.
It is important to note here that back in 2017, Republican Rep. Kerry Rich of Alabama started working on an amendment to the voter ID law that would have allowed families like the Wahls a chance to meet with poll workers before elections in order to be able to identify them without an identification image. That amendment fell to pieces as the sheer racism Rich tried to thread this amendment with was so coarse even conservatives had to bail.
When asked about whether his amendment ideas for the Mennonites and Amish in Alabama and their religious freedom extended to other religions with less heterogeneous parishioners, Rich said this: "Some people have said this might apply to Muslims. It would not apply to Muslims. They do not object to having their photo taken. There was some controversy in some state where someone had refused to take their burka off a female to have their photo taken, but their face would still show."
RELATED STORY: This is personal: GOP voter suppression stopped my voice from being heard, but we can fight back
John Wahl’s family seems to have stopped voting since 2018. Only Wahl and his dad have voted consistently. Wahl has tried to blame poll workers for his family being disenfranchised by the crap voter ID laws he and his party champion. In the end though, losing five conservative Christian Wahl family votes while disenfranchising large swaths of Black Alabamans is the kind of sacrifice the GOP is willing to make.
Meanwhile, reporter Kyle Whitmire has been dogging Wahl for an explanation of who exactly made the identification. After Wahl evasively lied about who made it, he came back to say that he made it with Ziegler after doing volunteer work setting up email systems for the state auditor. When Whitmire first asked Ziegler about this identification, Ziegler said: “My recollection is, before he was ever party chairman, I was doing one of my many investigations and he helped do it. And I remember vaguely something about he needed some ID that he could legitimately do this for me. That’s all I remember.”
Ziegler’s new response to Whitmire lines up a bit more with Wahl, without actually admitting to how fake Wahl’s identification card really is.
As Whitmire rightly points out, there’s a mysterious barcode that lines up with nothing. Wahl has been vague about what the barcode was for, if it is a real barcode with anything meaningful attached to it, or even if it’s just put there to make the card look that much more official.
The final stain on Wahl’s entire voting hypocrisy is this: According to the records shown Whitmire, the poll worker Clyde Martin, the one Wahl had replaced in 2022 after showing his bogus made-up identification card, had let him pass with the very same bogus card in 2020. And while Wahl does have a driver’s license that is a legal identification card in Alabama, Wahl insisted on trying to use this fake ID.