The front of Hugo L Black Courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama on August 15, 2023. The preliminary injunction is limited to the 90-day provision. (Jemma Stephenson/Alabama Reflector)
A federal judge Wednesday blocked the state of Alabama from conducting a voter removal program that state officials claimed was targeted at noncitizens on voter rolls.
In a five-page order, U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco stopped Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen from “inactivating” people who had noncitizen identification numbers, writing that Allen had missed a deadline outlined by federal law.
“For decades, federal law has given states a hard deadline to complete systematic purges of ineligible persons from voter rolls: no later than ninety days before a federal election,” she wrote. “This year, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen (1) blew the deadline when he announced a purge program to begin eighty-four days before the 2024 General Election, (2) later admitted that his purge list included thousands of United States citizens (in addition to far fewer noncitizens, who are ineligible to vote), and (3) in any event, referred everyone on the purge list to the Alabama Attorney General for criminal investigation.”
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Allen last August announced a plan to eventually remove non-citizens from voter rolls, which included letters sent to alleged non-citizens. The secretary of state said in a press release that he would “not tolerate the participation of noncitizens in our elections.”
The move affected 3,251 voters. The secretary of state’s office said there were about 3.77 million registered voters in Alabama last month.
Private plaintiffs, which included individual voters and voting rights groups, sued to block Allen in September, writing that the order took place after a deadline to change voting laws set in the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) had passed. The plaintiffs also said naturalized citizens had been swept up in Allen’s actions.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a similar but more limited lawsuit a few weeks later.
Messages seeking comment were left Wednesday with the Department of Justice Civil Rights’ Office, the Secretary of State’s office and the Attorney General’s office.
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen delivers his inaugural address during inauguration ceremonies at the Alabama State Capitol on Jan. 16, 2023 in Montgomery, Alabama. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector)
The Secretary of State did not have a comment early Wednesday, before Manasco had ruled.
“No U.S. citizen should be afraid to vote, and we are proud to have defended Alabamians ahead of the upcoming election,” said Kate Huddleston, senior counsel at Campaign Legal Center, which represented the private plaintiffs, in an emailed statement Wednesday. “Today’s court decision helps protect Alabama citizens’ freedom to register and vote without concerns about government interference or intimidation.”
“This is a win for voters and for all Alabamians who value a fair and free election,” said Michelle Kanter Cohen, Policy Director and Senior Counsel, Fair Election Center, in a press call and emailed statement.
The court Wednesday ordered Allen to issue guidance within three days to county registrars to activate inactivated from the program voters, who had not died, been disqualified by criminal conviction or mental incapacity or requested their removal.
Manasco also gave Allen three days to provide county registrars with information to inactivated registrants who did not submit a removal request. The order also required Allen to give guidance to county registrars with remedial mailers for inactivated voters who submitted a removal request, as long as they didn’t concede ineligibility.
Within three days, Allen will post a copy of the order, template copies of both mailers and a press release.
“Following discussions with counsel for the State on the second day of the hearing in these cases, the court also orders that Secretary Allen’s governmental website should reflect in a manner consistent with Alabama law that the information in Secretary Allen’s August 13, 2024 press release has now been superseded by federal court order,” she wrote.
Within five days, Allen must write to the Attorney General’s office that a number of the referred voters on the rolls were inaccurately identified.
The order does not limit Allen from investigating or removing noncitizens on the rolls. The preliminary injunction expires the day after the election, and the court reserves ruling on all other issues other than the 90-day deadline.
Manasco said both Tuesday and Wednesday that she felt the Department of Justice was likely to succeed on its claims. On Wednesday, she cited what appeared to be an over 50% error rate by the state in identifying voters it claimed were noncitizens.
The judge also seemed to agree that the secretary of state’s actions missed the cutoff date.
“Secretary Allen’s office blew the deadline,” she said.
Manasco rejected arguments from the Alabama attorney general’s office that the system was individualized, rather than systematic. She cited template documents and the database matching. She said the state was aware there could be people swept up who should not have been based on the way the list was generated.
Manasco also rejected the state’s argument that the letters to the voters “merely” invited them to check their eligibility, as deactivation is a step towards removal.
“This does not undo the purpose of the program,” she said.
Manasco offered the parties the opportunity to work on a preliminary injunction together overnight, but they had not come to an agreement by the early Wednesday morning deadline.
Much of the discussion at Wednesday’s hearing focused on the logistics of remedy, such as moving timelines to avoid weekend confusion. Manasco said that she “was sensitive to ordering an achievable order.”
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