Voters Rolls Purge Ruling
A federal judge on Wednesday halted a program that made thousands of legal voters in Alabama inactive, restoring active registration status for both American-born and naturalized citizens ahead of the November elections.
U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco ruled in favor of the Department of Justice and civil rights groups and issued a preliminary injunction against a voter purging program launched by the Republican Secretary of State Wes Allen in August.
The state’s top election official originally touted the program as a way to begin the “process” of removing “noncitizens registered to vote in Alabama.”
The Department of Justice and a coalition of immigration and voting rights groups sued Allen, arguing in court that the program violated a federal law barring the systemic removal of names from voter rolls 90 days before a federal election.
Affirming that argument, Manasco said Secretary of State Allen’s office “blew the deadline for the 2024 general election, with real consequences for thousands of Alabamians who the secretary now acknowledges are in fact legally entitled to vote.”
Approximately 2,000 of the 3,251 voters who were made inactive were legally registered citizens, according to testimony from the secretary of state’s chief of staff Clay Helms on Tuesday.
Montgomery Mayor Steven L. Reed supports Judge Anna Manasco’s decision to halt Secretary of State Wes Allen’s voter flagging program.
Mayor Reed’s Response:
“As a former member of the independent, bipartisan U.S. Election Assistance Commission and Alabama Probate Judge who oversaw elections in Montgomery County for years, I wholeheartedly support Judge Anna M. Manasco’s decision to halt Secretary of State Wes Allen’s unjust voter flagging program just weeks before the presidential election. This ruling is a vital defense of our democratic principles.”
