Voting rights groups file suit challenging Alabama removing voters from rolls

Voting rights groups filed a federal lawsuit Friday against Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, saying his attempt to remove individuals who are not citizens from the state’s voter registration rolls violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama alleges that Allen’s initiative breaches several provisions of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and Voting Rights Act of 1965. The lawsuit also alleges that the action violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because it discriminates against naturalized citizens and eligible voters that the Secretary of State’s Office identified.

“The framing of the announcement, and the description of the voter roll purge process that Secretary Allen described in that Aug. 13 release gave us immediate concern that there was some unlawful purging activity going on here,” said Jess Unger in an interview Monday, a senior staff attorney for voting rights with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

The Alabama Secretary of State’s Office declined comment Monday. In a statement released on Aug. 13, the office said more than 3,000 residents registered to vote in the state had been issued “noncitizen identification numbers” by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It also stated that the Secretary of State’s Office instructed the boards of registrars in the state to inactivate those on the list and to “initiate steps necessary to remove all individuals who are not United States Citizens.”



https://alabamareflector.com/2024/09/17/voting-rights-groups-file-suit-challenging-alabama-removing-voters-from-rolls/