During the last two weeks of December, our newspaper published a list of Shelby County voters who must update their voter registration information if they want to continue to vote here.

The list contained the names of voters who the Board of Registrars in the county have not been able to contact during the last four years, said Alabama Secretary of State Beth Chapman.

We applaud the efforts of state and county officials to make certain our voter rolls are accurate.

Our county board of registrars and state officials are following federal law in purging our voter records of those no longer eligible to cast ballots. Failing to work the list of eligible voters for fraud and other changes would lead to corruption in our elections.

The process used by registrars is simple. The board sends a non-forwardable mailing to every registered voter. If any come back as undeliverable, those voters are then mailed another forwardable mailing, asking the registered voter to contact the board of registrars. If the voter does not do so, his or her name goes on the list of those about to be removed from the voting records, which is published in our newspaper.

Little harm can come from a voter inadvertently removed from the registration records if they have years to re-register before the next election.

What’s most important is that every effort is made to adhere to an election process we all can trust.