For most Alabamians, a ringing phone is more likely to be a spam call than a friend, family member, neighbor or anyone you actually want to engage with in conversation. Any effort we can make to decrease the accessibility of our phone numbers to nuisance callers should be welcomed.

Rep. Jamie Kiel (R-Russellville) is sponsoring House Bill 67 which will go a long way in cutting down on unwelcome phone calls. Under current law, your phone number is available for purchase as a part of the state’s voter list. Rep. Kiel’s legislation will eliminate the inclusion of your phone number as part of the publicly available voter list, therefore removing a method that some of these “professional” callers use to access your number. It will also make it illegal to use information obtained from the state’s voter list for any commercial purpose.

As Alabama’s Secretary of State, I support his effort and look forward to a few less calls inquiring about my car warranty.

Wes Allen is Alabama’s 54th Secretary of State and serves as the state’s Chief Elections Official. Alabama law assigns the Secretary of State more than 1,000 duties. Additional information about the office and its responsibilities is available at www.sos.alabama.gov.