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On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-AL, appeared on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America” morning show to discuss the fast-approaching November election. During the appearance he was asked about the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Alabama and its Secretary of State Wes Allen’s program to purge 3,251 registered voters from the state’s voter rolls ahead of Election Day.
“Everybody should clean up their voting rolls, but we’ve had a lot of noncitizens registered to vote, and that’s not going to happen in our state of Alabama,” Tuberville responded. “It’s all a plan. They try to keep everybody in turmoil, but it’s not going to work.”
In reality, a federal court has already reversed Allen’s program, deeming it a violation of federal voting laws which mandate that any systematic purges of ineligible voters must be completed “no later than ninety days before a federal election.” According to court’s injunction Allen had failed to adhere to federal law when he “announced a purge program to begin eighty-four days before the 2024 General Election.”
Allen’s list of 3,251 names was created based on noncitizen identification numbers provided by the Department of Homeland Security. However, Allen himself “admitted that his purge list included thousands of United States citizens (in addition to far fewer noncitizens, who are ineligible to vote).”
Indeed, individuals who have been issued noncitizen identification numbers by the Department of Homeland Security can become naturalized citizens after the fact and become eligible voters in the United States. Both Allen and Tuberville’s characterization of those 3,251 individuals as “noncitizens” is wholly inaccurate.
Interestingly, Tuberville went on to remark that “Democrats are trying to do everything they possibly can to keep Republicans from voting,” despite the fact that it was Allen — a Republican Secretary of State — who blatantly pursued an initiative to prevent lawful American citizens from casting ballots in November.
Voter purges like those supported by Tuberville and Allen are often justified with conspiratorial arguments that Democratic lawmakers are attempting to increase illegal immigration in order to attract more voters. In that light, it would appear that Republican attempts to limit voting among individuals who have noncitizen identification numbers are actually intended to keep Democrats from voting.
In addition to preventing Allen’s efforts from moving forward, the federal court also ordered Alabama’s county registrars to “immediately restore to active status the voter registration records of registrants inactivated as part of the Program.” The court also demanded that remedial mailers be sent “to each registrant inactivated as part of the Program who did not subsequently submit a voter removal request” to inform them that they can indeed cast a ballot on Election Day.
Allen was also ordered to contact Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office, informing them that the 3,251 Alabamians whom the Secretary of State had referred to the Attorney General for criminal investigation were “inaccurately referred.”
Allen’s office also followed court orders by releasing a press release on Friday, Oct. 18, admitting that its program — which had been detailed in an earlier August press release — had been reversed by the court’s injunction.
Newsmax, the network where Tuberville spoke on Tuesday, was itself sued for $1.6 billion in 2021 for spreading debunked conspiracy theories that voting technology company Dominion had altered ballots in 2020 in favor of Democrat Joe Biden. That case is set to go to trial in April of next year. Newsmax also settled of a similar suit with another voting company, Smartmatic, in September.
