The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the State of Alabama, accusing it of breaking the law by attempting to purge non-citizens from the voter rolls.
In a press release on Friday, the DoJ said that Alabama’s actions, which target voters with non-citizen identification numbers, contravene the 1993 National Voter Registration Act by removing potentially eligible voters during the mandated 90-day “Quiet Period” before the election.
The state’s actions risk disenfranchising eligible voters, said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
“As Election Day approaches, it is critical that Alabama redress voter confusion resulting from its list maintenance mailings sent in violation of federal law,” Clarke said.
“The Quiet Period Provision of federal law exists to prevent eligible voters from being removed from the rolls as a result of last-minute, error-prone efforts.”
The attempt to purge the voter rolls was initiated by Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen. In August 13, he announced that 3,251 individuals on the state’s voter rolls had been flagged for removal, because they had been issued non-citizen identification numbers by the Department of Homeland Security.
“I have been clear that I will not tolerate the participation of noncitizens in our elections,” Allen said in a statement.
Although some of the individuals may since have become citizens, Allen made it clear that they would need to update their status using a state registration form in order to be able to vote.
He also said that the federal government had been unforthcoming in providing up-to-date lists of non-citizens to allow an accurate purge to take place.
The DoJ is seeking an injunction to prevent the purge from continuing and to reinstate those who have been removed. It also wants there to be remedial training of election officials and poll workers to “address any confusion or distrust among eligible voters wrongly flagged as being noncitizens,” according to The Epoch Times.
Alabama Secretary of State Allen has said that, despite challenges from the federal government and others, his office will continue to undertake efforts to ensure election integrity.
“This is not a one-time review of our voter file. We will continue to conduct such reviews to do everything possible to make sure that everyone on our file is an eligible voter.
“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.”
The purge was already the target of a separate lawsuit filed by a coalition of civil-rights organizations including the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice and the League of Women Voters of Alabama.
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