Slate:

These people fought—some of them were beaten, some of them were killed—because of their desire to ensure that everybody that wanted to had the right to register to vote and participate in the process. I’m not going to cheapen the work that they did. I’m not going to embarrass them by allowing somebody that’s too sorry to get up off of their rear end to go register to vote … because they think they deserve the right because they’ve turned 18.

“To me,” Merrill continued, “that’s no different than giving them a trophy because they’ve played on the ball team.”

You only get a trophy if you win! And if you want to participate in the process, there’s a system for doing that. And we want to make sure that they have the ability to do that. And we’re going to help them have the opportunity to do it. But just because you turned 18 doesn’t give you the right to do anything.

Merrill then said, “I’m not attracted to lazy people or sorry people or people who don’t want to get involved.”

If you’re too sorry or lazy to get up off of your rear and to go register to vote, or to register electronically, and then to go vote, then you don’t deserve that privilege. As long as I’m Secretary of State of Alabama, you’re going to have to show some initiative to become a registered voter in this state.