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Secretary of State Wes Allen announced Tuesday that he is instructing all county boards of registrars to purge 3,251 potential noncitizens from Alabama voter rolls.
Allen has repeatedly questioned the possibility of noncitizens voting in Alabama and says repeated requests for assistance from the federal government have gone unanswered.
“I have been clear that I will not tolerate the participation of noncitizens in our elections,” Allen said. “I have even gone so far as to testify before a United States Senate Committee regarding the importance of this issue. We have examined the current voter file in an attempt to identify anyone who appears on that list that has been issued a noncitizen identification number.”
Not all of the voters are necessarily noncitizens today; Allen noted that some of the individuals may have become naturalized citizens since they were originally issued the noncitizen identification number. The process initiated by the Secretary of State’s Office will allow those naturalized citizens to update their information on a State of Alabama Voter Registration Form and, once verified, vote in the state’s elections.
According to the latest data from the secretary of state’s website, there are more than 3.7 million registered voters in Alabama, and 1.4 million ballots were cast in the 2022 general election. The number of potential noncitizens identified represents .09 percent of registered voters and .22 percent of total ballots cast in the 2022 election.
Allen has also provided the list of registered voters identified as having been issued a noncitizen identification number to the Office of Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall for further investigation and possible criminal prosecution.
“This is not a one-time review of our voter file. We will continue to conduct such reviews to do everything possible to make sure that everyone on our file is an eligible voter,” Allen said. “I am hopeful that in the near future the federal government will change course and be helpful to states as we work to protect our elections.”
Allen has recently raised concerns about the federal policy of providing voter registration forms to noncitizens.
In an interview with ALCAP’s Greg Davis, Allen specifically singled out the National Voter Registration Act, which requires many federal agencies to provide voter registration forms to people who use their services. This requirement “includes legal non-citizens, and it also includes illegal aliens,” Allen said.
Despite Allen’s concerns about the NVRA, people registering to vote at DMVs or other government offices still must pass many of the same eligibility checks as everyone else.
Under the NVRA, each voter registration form must still “state each voter eligibility requirement (including citizenship), contain an attestation that the applicant meets each requirement, state the penalties provided by law for submission of a false voter registration application and require the signature of the applicant under penalty of perjury” [emphasis added].
Even after an application is filled out, under Alabama law, “no person shall be registered until a majority of the board of registrars has passed favorably upon the person’s qualifications,” which includes citizenship.
And while Allen disapproves of non-citizens potentially being offered voter registration forms, nothing prevents non-citizens from accessing the online voter registration form or downloadable PDF that Allen’s office maintain.
Allen also said that Biden’s decision to help the non-citizen spouses and children of American citizens apply for permanent residency is proof of a presidential plot to corrupt the November election.
The June 18 executive order applies only to noncitizens “legally married to a U.S. citizen” who “have resided in the United States for 10 or more years.” Additionally, it only allows them to apply for permanent residency within the next three years.
For lawful permanent residents married to a U.S. citizen, it takes three years to naturalize and become a U.S. citizen. Between the processing time for permanent residency applications and the three years wait, non-citizens affected by Biden’s executive order will not be able to vote in November, or even in the 2026 midterms.
