Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is representing four affected voters, two of whom have already been purged from the voter rolls, and a group of Alabama organizations in a lawsuit challenging Alabama’s new voter purge program, which threatens Alabamians’ freedom to vote. The purge program particularly targets naturalized citizens, who have the same freedom to vote as U.S.-born citizens.
Back to topOur democracy works best when every voter can participate. Even though every American regardless of where they are born has the freedom to vote, recent voter purges — including in Alabama — are threatening American citizens’ freedom to vote and targeting naturalized citizens.
Just months before voters are set to head to the ballot box to cast...
Voter purges, especially when done so close to an election, deny qualified American citizens their freedom to vote. Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen directed Alabama’s Boards of Registrars to remove from the voter rolls any individuals registered to vote in Alabama who were ever issued so-called "noncitizen identification number (often called A-numbers)" by the Department of Homeland Security.
Secretary Allen expressly admitted the virtual certainty that many if not all of the people he initially identified included naturalized citizens, but made no effort to keep qualified voters from being removed from the active voter rolls and requires them to reregister. He also publicly referred all individuals — 3,251 in total — to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall for criminal investigation and potential prosecution.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of a letter CLC wrote demanding that Alabama cease its illegal purge program.
Every naturalized citizen was, at one point, issued an "A-number" prior to becoming a citizen. As a result, Secretary Allen’s purge program is designed to purge and has purged over 717 U.S. citizens who were lawfully registered to vote. Those Alabamians will now have to re-register to vote in order to exercise their freedom to vote this November. Further, Secretary Allen’s use of outdated and error-riddled data has swept into his voter purge not only naturalized citizens but also U.S.-born Alabamians.
CLC is filing this case on behalf of the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, League of Women Voters of Alabama and the Alabama Conference of the NAACP and four affected voters. Our partner organizations include the Southern Poverty Law Center and Fair Elections Center.
WHAT’S AT STAKE
There are already strict laws in place that ensure only U.S. citizens can vote in federal elections. The safeguards we already have in place, including strict criminal punishment, financial penalties and possible deportation, ensure that only eligible citizens register and vote. Unfortunately, measures like Alabama’s often result in U.S. citizens being incorrectly prevented from voting. Secretary Allen even admitted that his purge almost certainly removed qualified Alabamians from voter rolls — and two of our plaintiffs are such Alabamians. Without a doubt, Secretary Allen’s letters and voter purge program has intimidated many naturalized U.S. citizens in Alabama who will be less likely to vote out of fear of being unfairly investigated and prosecuted. No U.S. citizen should be afraid to vote, no matter where they were born.
Our democracy works best when every American can participate. The court should step in to ensure that no Alabamian is deprived of this basic American freedom.
