Prosecutors are asking a judge to halt the effort and reinstate eligible voters who received notices that they would need to update their voter registration forms. They were told they could not re-register within 14 days of the Nov. 5 elections. (Carlos Bongioanni/Stars and Stripes)
The Justice Department on Friday sued the state of Alabama over a program that prosecutors said violated federal law by attempting to remove voters from state registration rolls fewer than 90 days before an election and improperly included some native-born and naturalized U.S. citizens.
Prosecutors are asking a judge to halt the effort and reinstate eligible voters who received notices that they would need to update their voter registration forms. They were told they could not re-register within 14 days of the Nov. 5 elections.
The lawsuit marks the Biden administration’s first legal action to block state efforts to trim voter rolls at a time when many leading Republicans, including GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, have made false claims of widespread voting fraud, including by undocumented immigrants.
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen (R), who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, said last month that the state had identified 3,251 people who had previously been issued federal noncitizen identification numbers and would have their voting status made inactive. He acknowledged that the list could include some people who had since become naturalized citizens, saying they would need to update their voting registration.
Allen’s office released a statement Friday saying it “does not comment on pending litigation where the Secretary of State is a named defendant.”
The statement also included a comment from Allen, who said it was his “Constitutional duty to ensure that only American citizens vote in our elections.”
Justice officials said the Alabama program violated federal laws barring state and localities from removing large numbers of voters from rolls too close to an election, during what is known as the 90-day “Quiet Period.” Those statutes exist, officials said, because such actions are often error-prone and can cause voter confusion with too little time to fix any mistakes or problems.
Federal authorities said their own review of Alabama’s list of noncitizens found that the state had improperly included some native-born and naturalized U.S. citizens.
“The right to vote is one of the most sacred rights in our democracy,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said in a statement. “As Election Day approaches, it is critical that Alabama redress voter confusion resulting from its list maintenance mailings sent in violation of federal law.”
Voting by noncitizens in federal elections is illegal, and research has shown it rarely happens. Trump and his supporters have intensely focused on the issue in recent months, with Republicans in the House pushing for legislation that would require voters to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote.
They have argued that it would ensure only citizens vote, while critics have said it would disenfranchise longtime voters who don’t have ready access to birth certificates, passports or other documents. In several states, conservatives have filed lawsuits seeking to force election officials to do more to identify noncitizens on the voter rolls.
Arizona was roiled this month when election officials learned the state’s computer systems had improperly recorded about 98,000 voters as having submitted proof of citizenship. That state’s Supreme Court addressed the matter within days, ruling that officials should not change those residents’ voting status because the election is so soon.
In addition to restoring the rights of eligible voters and blocking any other Quiet Period violations, federal prosecutors are asking the court to compel Alabama to mail information aimed at educating voters concerning the restoration of their rights. Prosecutors also ask for training for local officials and poll workers to alleviate confusion and distrust among eligible voters who have been improperly accused of being noncitizens.
The Alabama program already is facing a separate legal challenge from a coalition of civil rights groups, who said in a lawsuit last week that the state “is targeting its growing immigrant population through a voter purge intended to intimidate and disenfranchise naturalized citizens.”
