A federal judge halts an Alabama program that purged thousands of legal voters

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday halted a program that made thousands of legal voters in Alabama inactive, restoring active registration status for both American-born and naturalized citizens ahead of the November elections.

U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco ruled in favor of the Department of Justice and civil rights groups and issued a preliminary injunction against a voter purging program launched by the Republican Secretary of State Wes Allen in August. The state's top election official originally touted the program as a way to begin the “process” of removing “noncitizens registered to vote in Alabama.”

The Department of Justice and a coalition of immigration and voting rights groups sued Allen, arguing in court that the program violated a federal law barring the systemic removal of names from voter rolls 90 days before a federal election.

Affirming that argument, Manasco said Secretary of State Allen’s office “blew the deadline for the 2024 general election, with real consequences for thousands of Alabamians who the secretary now acknowledges are in fact legally entitled to vote.”

The decision comes less than a week after the Department of Justice filed a similar suit in Virginia.

Under the August initiative, the secretary of state’s office identified 3,251 potential noncitizens registered to vote using foreign national numbers collected by state agencies on both unemployment benefits and driver's license applications. He then instructed local board of registrars to make those voters inactive, which doesn't immediately remove them from the voter rolls but does require the resident to provide additional verification before voting.

The list was also given to the Alabama Attorney General for “possible criminal prosecution.”

Approximately 2,000 of the 3,251 voters who were made inactive were legally registered citizens, according to testimony from the secretary of state’s chief of staff Clay Helms on Tuesday.

More than 900 of the initial 3,251 voters proved they were legal voters by September, according to Helms' testimony. On Tuesday, less than a month before the election, another 1,000 were reactivated after the secretary of state's office doublechecked driver's license information from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, Helms said. Those voters were sent registered voter cards with polling information.

At least 159 people from the list were “disqualified” after the purge in August, meaning they will be removed from the voter rolls.

Some were legal voters who submitted removal forms by accident or based on confusing instructions from local election officials, according to court documents.

“A few” of those disqualified indicated on voter removal forms that they were noncitizens, according to Helms' written testimony.

Robert Overing, an attorney for the defense, said Secretary Allen's office had “no sense” of how many legal voters would be caught up in the program.

Manasco said Allen's decision to refer thousands of these innocent voters to the attorney general for potential criminal investigation caused “irreparable harm."

The injunction ordered the secretary of state to educate county officials and poll workers, publish a press release and send letters updating the recently reactivated voters.

Manasco ruled that Secretary Allen is still allowed to remove ineligible voters ahead of the upcoming election as long as it is not part of the program, and on an individual basis.

In the hearing Tuesday, lawyers for the secretary of state emphasized that none of the inactive voters were removed from the voter rolls.

“There is not a systematic removal because there is no removal,” argued Robert Overing, an attorney for the Secretary of State.

Overing argued that the program was only a “slight inconvenience” for legally registered voters who could still vote, so long as they verified their status with an additional form.

Attorneys with the Department of Justice and civil rights groups both argued that voters didn't receive enough information about how to reactivate their registration status in August and continue to be confused by the inconsistent information issued by the secretary of state's office.

“The program has injected chaos and uncertainty into the November 2024 election and created the risk of disenfranchisement,” Kathryn Huddleston, an attorney for the Campaign Legal Center, said Tuesday.

Manasco said the preliminary injunction would not extend beyond the November vote, adding she ruled narrowly on the fact that the program occurred within 90 days of the upcoming election.

Allen declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation. But a statement he gave to The Associated Press said, “it is my Constitutional duty to ensure that only American citizens vote in our elections.”

Michelle Canter Coen, senior counsel and policy director for the Fair Election Center, said Wednesday's decision sends a clear message around the country.

“When a state sends out a message like this, it has harmed the whole electorate,” Canter Coen said. "This is a victory for naturalized citizens and legal voters."

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Riddle reported from Montgomery. Riddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.