Justice Dept Sues Alabama Over Efforts To Remove Non-Citizens From Voter Rolls

The Justice Department sued Alabama on Friday over its efforts to clean up its voter rolls and ensure that non-citizens are not registered to vote, saying its actions come “too close” to an election. 

The lawsuit comes after Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen announced an effort last month to remove non-citizens from the state’s voter rolls. In its lawsuit, the DOJ said that this effort violated federal law because the National Voter Registration Act restricts actions states can take within 90 days of a federal election. 

“The right to vote is one of the most sacred rights in our democracy,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “As Election Day approaches, it is critical that Alabama redress voter confusion resulting from its list maintenance mailings sent in violation of federal law.”

On August 13, 84 days before the November 5 election, Allen said that Alabama officials had identified up to 3,251 people on Alabama voter rolls with non-citizen identification numbers assigned to them by the Department of Homeland Security. 

In response to the findings, Allen sent letters to the 3,251 people to give them a chance to update their information to discover if they had become naturalized citizens since entering the country or if they should be taken off the rolls because they were not U.S. citizens. Allen said that the federal government had refused to answer requests for information on foreign nationals living in his state, prompting his initiative. 

This action triggered a DOJ review, which found that “both native-born and naturalized U.S. citizens have received letters stating that their voter record has been made inactive and that they have been placed on a path for removal from Alabama’s statewide voter registration list.”

The DOJ said it wants to make Alabama send out “remedial mailings” in order “to educate eligible voters concerning the restoration of their rights and adequate training of local officials and poll workers to address confusion and distrust among eligible voters accused of being noncitizens.”

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Allen argued that his action was necessary to clean up the voter rolls and that individuals would still be allowed to vote if they were actually American citizens. 

“I have been clear that I will not tolerate the participation of noncitizens in our elections,” he said back in August. “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.”  

Earlier this month, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala was charged in Alabama with using a fake identity to vote in the 2016 and 2020 elections, as well as obtaining fake passports.