Advocacy groups sue Alabama over voter roll purge

Updated: Sep 14, 2024 / 07:01 PM CDT

A “Vote Here” sign is displayed outside the Clark County Elections Office during the presidential primary election on Tuesday, March 12, 2024, in Vancouver, Wash. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

A lawsuit brought forward by several advocacy groups alleges that four individuals in Alabama have been unfairly targeted by the state’s voter roll purge ahead of the presidential election in November.

The lawsuit claims that State Secretary Wes Allen’s purge program, a plan seeking to purge more than 3,000 voters in the state who had previously been issued noncitizen identification numbers by the Department of Homeland Security, violates the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), a law that advances voting rights and makes it easier for voters to register.

“The Purge Program inactivates and constructively removes thousands of Alabamians from the active voter rolls shortly before the November 2024 general election and forces them to needlessly re-register in order to vote and be registered to vote, based solely on Secretary Allen’s belief that they were at one point issued a noncitizen identification number—even if they have since become naturalized citizens and lawfully registered to vote,” the advocacy groups wrote in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also alleges that some eligible voters on the purge list were inaccurately added due to false information, which has led to them having to re-register to vote.

“No American citizen should be denied their freedom to vote, and all Americans have the same freedom to vote regardless of where they were born. Instead of protecting Americans’ freedom to vote in the November election, Alabama is shamefully intimidating naturalized citizens and illegally purging qualified Americans from voter rolls,” said Paul Smith, senior vice president of Campaign Legal Center, one of the advocacy groups.

Last month, several advocacy groups including the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama sent a letter to Allen criticizing the purge program and demanding it to cease.

“We demand that your office and all other implementing state and local entities in Alabama immediately cease this program, and we further demand that Alabama produce documents related to the program pursuant to the NVRA,” they wrote.