A federal judge has ruled that the Alabama secretary of state’s program that flagged thousands of registered voters as noncitizens must stop until after the November election.
Judge Anna M. Manasco, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump in 2020, decided Tuesday that Alabama must stop designating those voters as “inactive” with the election taking place in just three weeks, AL.com reported.
Secretary of State Wes Allen (R) announced the launch of a “process to remove noncitizens registered to vote” on August 13, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a press release announcing a lawsuit against the state in September.
According to Allen’s office, 3,251 registered voters were identified as having been assigned “noncitizen identification numbers by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).”
“I have been clear that I will not tolerate the participation of noncitizens in our elections,” Allen said. “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.”
Allen’s office sent notices to the individuals it identified as noncitizens, alerting them that their registration status had been marked as inactive pending verification that they are eligible to vote.
The DOJ’s review of the flagged voters found that both native-born and naturalized U.S. citizens received such letters, the department said.
Out of the 3,251 flagged individuals, “more than 2,074 people have since been deemed eligible to vote, both sides agreed during court,” AL.com reported.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division argued that Allen’s efforts violated the National Voter Registration Act’s “clear and unequivocal restrictions on systematic list maintenance efforts that fall within 90 days of an election,” and cited the Quiet Period Provision’s power to “prevent eligible voters from being removed from the rolls as a result of last-minute, error-prone efforts.”
Several civil rights groups also sued the state, with attorney Kathryn Huddleston saying the program “injected chaos and uncertainty into the 2024 election.”
Judge Manasco agreed that the changes were unfair, demanding that the secretary of state must stop deeming voters as “inactive” so close to the election.
“As part of this program, they were all reported to Alabama’s chief law enforcement authority for criminal investigation,” she said, adding “as far as I know nothing has been done to undo that.”
While she sided with the DOJ and civil rights groups in their argument that Allen’s flagging program was unlawful to enact within 90 days of an election, Manasco declined to extend the injunction past November 5, or to rule on allegations that the program is discriminatory or meant to intentionally disenfranchise voters.
Noting that the state had taken corrective action to restore active voter status to some of the people deemed to be legal citizens, the judge said, “Those efforts underscore the importance of the 90-day deadline. It also illustrates to me that a workable, achievable relief is not out of reach.”