BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday halted a program that rendered thousands of legal voters in Alabama inactive and restored lively registration status for both U.S.-born and naturalized citizens ahead of the November election.
U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco ruled in favor of the Justice Department and civil rights groups and issued a preliminary injunction against a voter purification program launched by Republican Secretary of State Wes Allen in August. The state’s top elections official initially touted the program as a way to begin the “process” of removing “non-citizens registered to vote in Alabama.”
The Justice Department and a coalition of immigration and voting rights groups sued Allen, arguing in court that the program violated a federal law that prohibits the systematic removal of names from voter rolls 90 days before a federal election.
Manasco reiterated that argument, saying Secretary Allen’s office “has exceeded the 2024 general election deadline, with real consequences for thousands of Alabamians who the secretary now recognizes are in fact legally eligible to vote.”
The decision comes less than a week after the Justice Department filed a similar lawsuit in Virginia.
As part of the August initiative, the State Department identified 3,251 potential noncitizens who had registered to vote, using foreign citizenship numbers collected by state agencies from both unemployment benefit and driver’s license applications. He then directed the local registration office to make those voters inactive, which does not immediately remove them from voter rolls but requires the resident to provide additional verification before voting.
The list was also turned over to the Alabama attorney general for “possible criminal prosecution.”
About 2,000 of the 3,251 voters who were inactivated were legally registered citizens, according to a statement from the secretary of state’s chief of staff, Clay Helms, on Tuesday.
By September, more than 900 of the original 3,251 voters proved they were legal voters, according to Helm’s statement. On Tuesday, less than a month before the election, another 1,000 were reactivated after the State Department double-checked driver’s license information from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, Helms said. These voters were sent registered voter cards with election information.
At least 159 people on the list were “disqualified,” meaning they will be removed from voter rolls, following the August purge.
Some were legal voters who submitted removal forms by mistake or based on confusing instructions from local election officials, according to court documents.
According to Helms’ written testimony, “some” of those disqualified indicated on the voter disenfranchisement forms that they were not citizens.
Robert Overing, a defense attorney, said Secretary Allen’s office had “no idea” how many legal voters would be included in the program.
Manasco said Allen’s decision to refer thousands of these innocent voters to the attorney general for possible criminal investigation caused “irreparable harm.”
The injunction ordered the secretary of state to train county officials and poll workers, issue a press release and send letters informing recently reactivated voters.
Manasco ruled that Secretary Allen may still remove ineligible voters from office before the upcoming election as long as it is not part of the program and on an individual basis.
At Tuesday’s hearing, the secretary of state’s lawyers emphasized that none of the inactive voters had been removed from the voter rolls.
“There is no systematic removal because there is no removal,” argued Robert Overing, a lawyer for the secretary of state.
Overing argued that the program presented only a “minor inconvenience” to legally registered voters, who could continue to vote as long as they confirmed their status with an additional form.
Lawyers for the Justice Department and civil rights groups both argued that voters were not given enough information in August about how to reactivate their registration status and that they continued to be confused by the State Department’s inconsistent information.
“The program has brought chaos and uncertainty to the November 2024 election and created the risk of disenfranchisement,” Kathryn Huddleston, an attorney with the Campaign Legal Center, said Tuesday.
Manasco said the injunction will not extend beyond the November vote, adding that it narrowly expects the program to be implemented within 90 days of the upcoming election.
Allen declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation. But in a statement to The Associated Press it said: “It is my constitutional duty to ensure that only American citizens vote in our elections.”
Michelle Canter Coen, senior counsel and policy director for the Fair Election Center, said Wednesday’s decision sends a clear message to the entire country.
“When a state sends a message like that, it hurts the entire electorate,” Canter Coen said. “This is a victory for naturalized citizens and legal voters.”
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Riddle reported from Montgomery. Riddle is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
