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On Friday, Oct. 18, the Alabama Secretary of State’s office was ordered to announce that the information contained in its Aug. 13 press release had been superseded by a federal court order. The original press release had detailed Secretary of State Wes Allen’s program to purge 3,251 individuals who are registered to vote in Alabama from the voter rolls ahead of the November general election.
Allen initially created the list of individuals to be purged based on noncitizen identification numbers provided by the Department of Homeland Security, ordering every county in Alabama to remove their names from the voter rolls. Allen also “referred everyone on the purge list to the Alabama Attorney General for criminal investigation.” However, on Oct. 16, a U.S. District Court issued an injunction that effectively reversed Allen’s “Process to Remove Noncitizens Registered to Vote in Alabama.”
The injunction stemmed from two lawsuits against Allen and his program, one initiated by affected individuals and the other by the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to the injunction, Allen “announced a purge program to begin eighty-four days before the 2024 General Election” — a violation of federal law which mandates that all systematic purges of ineligible voters must be completed “no later than ninety days before a federal election.” The injunction also states that Allen “admitted that his purge list included thousands of United States citizens (in addition to far fewer noncitizens, who are ineligible to vote).”
Individuals who have been issued noncitizen identification numbers by the Department of Homeland Security can become naturalized citizens after the fact and, therefore, become eligible to vote as lawful U.S. citizens. There is no reason to assume that the 3,251 names on Allen’s purge list are ineligible voters.
Now, in accordance with the court’s conclusions concerning the 90 Day Provision of the National Voter Registration Act, Allen and the state of Alabama have been “preliminarily enjoined from continuing the program intended to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from registration lists.” Additionally, the injunction orders county registrars to “immediately restore to active status the voter registration records of registrants inactivated as part of the Program.”
Allen must also direct the county registrars to send a “remedial mailing to each registrant inactivated as part of the Program who did not subsequently submit a voter removal request” informing them that they their active voter status has been restored and that they may cast a vote on Election Day. The mailers will also advise noncitizens that they remain ineligible to cast a ballot.
Those who submitted voter removal requests subsequent to being inactivated by the program are also to be advised “that if they are United States citizens and otherwise meet voter qualifications, they have the right to vote and may reregister to vote.”
The court also instructed Allen to contact Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office, informing them that the 3,251 Alabamians referred to the Attorney General for criminal investigation were “inaccurately referred.”
The court order does not prevent the Secretary of State from removing names from the official voter list “at the request of the registrant, by reason of criminal conviction or mental incapacity (as provided by State law), by reason of the death of the registrant, or based on individualized information about non-citizenship.”
The mandated press release issued by Allen’s office acknowledges the injunction, which will expire the day after the 2024 General Election on Nov. 6, and concedes that its August press release concerning the program “has been superseded by federal court order.”
The press release also includes a link to the preliminary injunction order, as well as template copies of the court-ordered remedial mailings that will be sent to those 3,251 individuals implicated in the now-reversed program.
