By Sheila McNeil, Chair of the Madison County Democratic Executive Committee
(Huntsville, AL) As you prepare to go to the polls to vote in one of the most important elections of our time this November, I admonish you to check your voter registration status before you go. There isn’t much worse than showing up at the voting poll and finding that the voter registration is inactive, you’ve been removed from the list, or you are at the wrong polling place. As competitive as this presidential election is, every vote will count.
Here’s another very important reason to check your voting status. The Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen’s office has begun removing 3,251 people from the state’s voter rolls because they had previously been issued noncitizen identification numbers. His office also referred the list of registered voters to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall for potential criminal prosecution because federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in national elections.
Last month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that over one million ineligible voters had been removed from his state’s voter rolls, including 6,500 noncitizens, while Tennessee officials in June asked over 14,000 residents to provide proof of their citizenship to remain on voter rolls.
To challenge the move in Alabama, a coalition of voting rights groups recently sued the State’s secretary of state and attorney general over a policy they say illegally targets naturalized citizens to keep them from voting. The coalition’s lawsuit alleges that the recent policy intended to remove noncitizens from Alabama’s voter rolls “undermines the fundamental right to vote” by relying on faulty information that discriminates against naturalized citizens, disenfranchises eligible voters, and wrongly refers cases for criminal prosecution.
According to ABC News, in the Alabama lawsuit, the State is targeting its growing immigrant population through a voter purge intended to intimidate and disenfranchise naturalized citizens, many of whom have been naturalized for decades. Despite heightened concerns about illegal voting, research has suggested that actual instances of noncitizens voting are exceedingly rare.
The history of voter registration reveals competing forces: on the one hand, the requirement to register was often used as a tool of disenfranchisement, particularly to harm minority populations, others encourage more people to participate in democracy. Various groups have engaged in voter registration activities from the time states adopted registration laws, continuing to today. Voter purge attempts today aim at alleged “noncitizens” primarily to prevent eligible naturalized citizens from casting ballots.
I say, regardless of whether you are a natural-born or naturalized citizen of the United States, check your voter registration status today. Here is the link to register or check your registration: https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/voter/register-to-vote. Or you can call 334-242-7210.
