Federal injunction halts removal of 3,251 individuals from voter rolls, restoring access to the ballot for thousands.
SPEAKIN’ OUT NEWS
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Secretary of State’s office announced on Oct. 18 that a federal court order has overridden its previous plan to remove individuals from the state’s voter rolls.
On Oct. 16, a U.S. District Court issued an injunction that reversed Secretary of State Wes Allen’s “Process to Remove Noncitizens Registered to Vote in Alabama.” This program aimed to purge 3,251 individuals from the voter rolls ahead of the November general election based on noncitizen identification numbers provided by the Department of Homeland Security.
The court’s injunction was prompted by two lawsuits—one from affected individuals and another from the U.S. Department of Justice. The court found that Allen’s purge program began 84 days before the 2024 General Election, violating federal law that requires systematic purges of ineligible voters to be completed at least 90 days before a federal election. The injunction also noted that Allen admitted his purge list included thousands of U.S. citizens.
Individuals with noncitizen identification numbers can become naturalized citizens and, therefore, are eligible to vote. The court emphasized that there was no basis for assuming that the 3,251 individuals targeted in the purge were ineligible voters.
As part of the injunction, Allen and the state of Alabama are barred from continuing the purge program. County registrars have been instructed to restore the voter registration records of individuals who were inactivated due to the program. Additionally, registrars must send a remedial mailing to inform those individuals that their voter status has been restored and that they are eligible to vote.
The court order also requires Allen to notify Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office that the individuals referred for criminal investigation were “inaccurately referred.”
The injunction does not prevent the Secretary of State from removing names from the voter list under specific circumstances, including at the request of the registrant, due to criminal conviction, mental incapacity, or death.
The Secretary of State’s mandated press release acknowledges the injunction, which will remain in effect until Nov. 6, the day after the 2024 General Election. It also includes a link to the preliminary injunction order and template copies of the remedial mailings to be sent to the affected individuals.
