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Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen addressed the Greenville Lions Club on Mar. 3, focusing on election integrity, recent legislative efforts and his future political aspirations.

Allen, who has roots in local government, expressed his appreciation for Butler County and the connections he has maintained over the years.

“Butler County is a great place,” he said. “I always love coming to Greenville and I love seeing my friend Chris Sells, Mayor McLendon and all my many friends over here at the Greenville Lions Club.”

Club member Craig Waller introduced Allen, giving the crowd a glimpse of the secretary’s topic.

“We have got probably one of the most historical mayoral races ever coming up in August, and I thought it would be a good time for the voters to get reacquainted with Mr. Allen and just have that voter confidence that our polls aren’t rigged and that every vote counts,” Waller said.

Greenville’s upcoming mayoral election is expected to be highly contested, with current Mayor Dexter McLendon possibly facing three new challengers. Allen, who has made election integrity a cornerstone of his term, used his visit to discuss efforts to safeguard Alabama’s voting process.

“We’re going to talk about all the accomplishments that we’ve had since Jan. 16 of 2023 when I took the oath as secretary, and I’m going to bring the club up to speed on election integrity efforts, what we’ve been doing to fortify our elections in the state of Alabama [and] what we’re doing to cut through red tape and government regulations to be business-friendly in our office because so many businesses do interface with the secretary’s office,” Allen said before his speech. 

Allen highlighted legislative advancements made under his tenure, emphasizing measures aimed at strengthening election security.

“We feel like what we’ve been able to accomplish over the last three legislative sessions has been tremendous,” he said. “Obviously, we don’t want to stop what we’ve been able to accomplish. We want to continue to fortify our elections and we’ve got some things in the works in the legislative session that will continue to do that.”

In addition to his current responsibilities, Allen confirmed his intention to run for lieutenant governor in 2026,when Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth concludes his second term.

“We’re excited,” Allen said. “You know, we’ve got a great record since my days as a probate judge, a state house member and now in the executive branch as a secretary of state. 

“We feel like we’ve got a strong conservative record and we want to take that local experience from my time as a probate judge for nine and a half years as well as that legislative experience where we made sure we were voting for good conservative legislation… We want to take that local experience to be responsive to the people of this state.”

The meeting provided Greenville residents an opportunity to hear directly from Allen about his efforts in office and his future plans, reinforcing his stance on election security and conservative governance.