Secretary of State John H. Merrill was the guest speaker at the Wednesday meeting of the Brundidge Rotary Club.

Merrill’s interest in politics dates back at least to 1986 when he was elected president of the Student Government Association at the University of Alabama. While attending the University of Alabama, he served as congressional intern for Congressman Bill Nichols and Senator Howell Heflin.

On November 2, 2010, Merrill was elected to represent District 62 in the State House of Representatives. In 2012, he was named the Alabama House Legislator of the Year by the Children’s Trust Fund and was recognized by the Alabama Republican Party as a Rising Republican Star.

On Nov. 4, 2014, Merrill was elected as Alabama’s Secretary of State with 65 percent of the vote and carried 53 or Alabama’s 67 counties. He was inaugurated as Alabama’s 53rd Secretary of State on January 19, 2015.

Merrill took office determined to eliminate those in office who were not doing their jobs.

He said the common belief is that teachers and government employees who are not doing their jobs can’t be fired.

“But they’ve got to go,” Merrill said. “I asked how many people we had and I was told 49. Now, we have 38 people. Those who need to go will go and the ones that replace them will be better than those we’ve got.”

Merrill said, when he took office, he realized there was no structured procurement and credit cards were being use at will.

“If a stapler was lost, another one was bought,” he said.

“There was no policy to follow. And, those green-top buildings, the ones Dr. (David) Bronner owns, the RSA Union Building that we were renting. I asked how much we were paying – $18 a square foot for 7,600 feet. We moved to the state house and we’re paying $8 a square foot for 7,800 square feet. That’s a savings of about a quarter million dollars. “

Merrill said he received substantial savings in a reduced price for the Code Books and from vendor issues simply “because we asked.”

Merrill said the Secretary of State Office has reduced the number of people, eliminated waste, evaluated contracts and regulated procurement.

“Since January 19, 2015, the state has saved $930,029.13. Demand accountability,” he said. “Ask, demand and get things the way you want.”

On voter fraud, Merrill said it’s going to be easy to vote in Alabama and real hard to cheat. Merrill told the Rotarians if they only got one thing from his visit, he wanted them to know that “we work for you.”

“Call me at my office and we will be delighted to help,” he said.