A federal judge has ordered Alabama election officials to temporarily stop canceling voter registrations, backing the Justice Department’s claim that the state is violating federal law by purging its voter rolls so close to the election.
In a court order issued Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco wrote that Alabama must pause a program to remove people from the voter rolls and restore the registration information of thousands of people already removed under the program.
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen announced in August that his office had removed 3,251 people from the voter rolls because they were linked to noncitizen identification numbers. He described the purge as a crackdown on non-citizen voting – which is incredibly rare and already illegal, with stiff penalties for such events. Allen admitted in his announcement that some of the registered voters he removed may now be naturalized citizens, adding that all those who were removed were nevertheless referred to the Alabama Attorney General’s office for “possible criminal charges.” ”
The Justice Department subsequently sued Alabama, arguing that the voter purge program violates a provision in the National Voter Registration Act that requires states to complete the removal of ineligible voters no later than 90 days before the federal election. (The DOJ also sued Virginia over a similar voter purge scheme.)
Manasco wrote that Allen’s announcement of the program 84 days before Election Day “ruined everything [90-day] term.” His office is also required to inform the 3,251 people removed from the voter rolls that they are still eligible to vote if they meet voter qualifications, according to the court order.
In the run-up to the election, Republicans have done everything in their power to address the essentially imaginary problem of widespread noncitizen voting. Claims about non-citizen voting have been amplified by Donald Trump and his allies as they stoke fear of non-white immigrants and undermine confidence in elections. Voting rights advocates argue that these state efforts to prevent voting among noncitizens mainly entrap naturalized U.S. citizens.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
