Federal Judge Reverses Alabama’s ‘Noncitizen’ Voter Purge

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen’s attempted purge of supposed non-U.S. citizens violates the law.

District Judge Anna Manasco’s decision followed Allen’s announcement that he was removing over 3,200 people from the state’s voter rolls on Aug. 13. Under the National Voter Registration Act, states are prohibited from removing voters from the rolls during a 90-day “quiet period” prior to an election.

This year, that period began on Aug. 7. A group of nonprofits representing Alabama residents and the Department of Justice filed separate lawsuits challenging the purge.

Allen “blew the deadline when he announced a purge program to begin eighty-four days before the 2024 General Election,” Manasco’s decision states.

While Allen’s purge order purported to target noncitizens, at least 22% of the people removed from the voter rolls were actually U.S. citizens. In the Justice Department lawsuit, lawyers noted that more than 700 people targeted by the purge re-registered — a sign that they were citizens all along — after Allen ordered their registrations to be deactivated. These citizens were not only purged from the rolls but referred to the state attorney general for prosecution.

Manasco’s decision orders Allen to halt and reverse the voter purge program by directing county clerks to restore the purged persons to active voter status and to send them letters explaining that they are eligible to vote in the November election unless they are actually not U.S. citizens or had filed a removal request.

Allen’s purge is part of a concerted Republican campaign to foment fear that the 2024 election could be stolen due to noncitizen voting. GOP secretaries of state and governors across the country have announced sweeping purges of supposed noncitizens from the voter rolls. Noncitizen voting, however, is not only illegal but also vanishingly rare. And since noncitizen voting is so rare, it is no surprise that almost all of these purges sweep up actual U.S. citizens, as Allen’s purge did.

Alabama is one of two states led by Republicans that have faced lawsuits for violating the 90-day quiet period. In Virginia, GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order launching his own noncitizen purge program on Aug. 7 — the day the quiet period began. A group of national nonprofits and the Department of Justice have sued, separately, to stop it.