Signage at an early voting center on Sept. 23, 2016 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Voting rights groups in Alabama filed a lawsuit challenging the actions of the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office to remove people from the state’s voter registration list weeks before the general election. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Voting rights groups filed a federal lawsuit Friday against Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, saying his attempt to remove individuals who are not citizens from the state’s voter registration rolls violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama alleges that Allen’s initiative breaches several provisions of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and Voting Rights Act of 1965. The lawsuit also alleges that the action violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because it discriminates against naturalized citizens and eligible voters that the Secretary of State’s Office identified.
“The framing of the announcement, and the description of the voter roll purge process that Secretary Allen described in that Aug. 13 release gave us immediate concern that there was some unlawful purging activity going on here,” said Jess Unger in an interview Monday, a senior staff attorney for voting rights with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
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The Alabama Secretary of State’s Office declined comment Monday. In a statement released on Aug. 13, the office said more than 3,000 residents registered to vote in the state had been issued “noncitizen identification numbers” by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It also stated that the Secretary of State’s Office instructed the boards of registrars in the state to inactivate those on the list and to “initiate steps necessary to remove all individuals who are not United States Citizens.”
“I have been clear that I will not tolerate the participation of noncitizens in our elections,” Allen said in the news release. “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 non citizen identification number.”
Each immigrant is provided a unique identification number listed on an identification card, otherwise known as a green card, that each keeps until they return to their country of origin or are naturalized and become citizens of the U.S. and thus eligible to vote.
The office said in the statement that the federal government rebuffed the state’s request seeking the names of noncitizen residents living in Alabama.
Allen acknowledged in the release that some of those issued noncitizen identification numbers may have been naturalized and therefore eligible to vote.
The plaintiffs, who include the League of Women Voters of Alabama and the Alabama Coalition of Immigrant Justice, argue that Allen’s action violates provisions of the NVRA, enacted by the federal government in 1993.
The NVRA leaves states responsible for maintaining their voter registration lists, but within specific parameters. According to the description in the U.S. Department of Justice’s website, “the act requires list maintenance programs to incorporate specific safeguards, e.g., that they be uniform, non-discriminatory, in compliance with the Voting Rights Act, and not be undertaken within 90 days of a federal election.”
The lawsuit alleges that Allen, through the news release, initiated a new program within 84 days of the election, less than the 90 days mandated by the NVRA.
“You are not entitled just to your voter registration transaction, but you are entitled to remain on the rolls unless you are removed for a valid reason,” Unger said.
Unger said Allen must assume the 3,000 people cited in his news release are citizens and eligible to participate in the election. Unger said they cannot be removed simply because they have noncitizen registration numbers.
“He doesn’t know for sure whether any or all of these 3000-plus folks have since become naturalized U.S. citizens,” Unger said.
The plaintiffs also allege that the process the Alabama’s Secretary of State established discriminates against naturalized citizens. A person may become an American citizen through birth or through naturalization, by passing a test and then taking the oath of citizenship.
To assess whether a noncitizen is registered to vote, Allen is screening for permanent residents with a noncitizen identification number and who are also registered to vote. The office is then imposing an additional process that requires them to prove their eligibility to vote. The lawsuit argues that’s a burden not imposed on native-born citizens.
“The criterion used to select registered voters for inclusion on the purge list is both arbitrary as a means of ferreting out ineligible voters, and discriminatory in that it targets naturalized citizens for extra burdens,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit lists plaintiffs erroneously identified as noncitizens. Among those listed in the lawsuit is Roald Hazelhoff, who is from the Netherlands who became a citizen of the United States in 2022 and is registered to vote.
He received a letter from the Jefferson County Board of Registrars after because his name was part of the more than 3,000 people the Secretary of State’s Office identified. He reported to the elections office to address the situation and plans to vote in the coming election.
“Although he is presently listed as active on the voter registration rolls, he remains uncertain whether he will be able to vote on November 5, 2024,” the lawsuit states.
The correspondence not only warned residents on the list, but it also stated that their names were referred to the state Attorney General’s Office for further investigation and possible prosecution.
A message was sent to the Attorney General’s Office Monday seeking comment.
The lawsuit argues that language in the letter amounts to pressure and violates the Voting Rights Act, which states that it is unlawful to either threaten or intimidate someone from attempting to exercise their right to vote.
“We think there is also an intimidation aspect here, because it is not just notices, which themselves are misleadingly written, and we suspect has led some voters to request to remove themselves from voter registration even if they are eligible voters,” Unger said. “It is everything around this as well. This is in the context of a nationwide rumor mill, or hysteria, about people voting who shouldn’t be voting.”
Allen has supported legislation that places additional barriers to the ballot box.
“We will continue to conduct such reviews to do everything possible to make sure that everyone on our file is an eligible voter,” Allen said in the statement. “I am hopeful that in the near future the federal government will change course and be helpful to states as we work to protect our elections.”
There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud or voter fraud reaching levels to overturn an election.
According to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative leaning think tank, there have been 20 cases of election deceit in Alabama in the past 24 years, with multiple election experts dismissing the claim and stating that elections in the U.S. are safe and secure.
In the 2022 midterm election alone, 1.4 million people cast a ballot, according to the Secretary of State’s website.
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