Birmingham, AL — Today, Campaign Legal Center, Alabama voters and civil rights groups successfully defended naturalized Americans who were unfairly purged from Alabama’s voter rolls. A federal judge halted Alabama’s illegal and last-minute purge program, which put the freedom to vote for thousands of Alabamians in jeopardy, holding that Alabama could not systematically operate their program meant to remove voters from the rolls in the ninety days before the 2024 general election.

CLC, Fair Elections Center, and Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed a lawsuit on behalf of four Alabama voters, the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, the League of Women Voters of Alabama, and the Alabama Conference of the NAACP. After the groups filed a motion for preliminary injunction, the Department of Justice also filed a lawsuit. 

“All Americans have the same freedom to vote, regardless of where they were born. We are proud to stand up for every Alabamian’s right to vote in the November election and are thankful Alabama’s unlawful voter purge is being put to an end,” said CLC’s Vice President Paul Smith. “In practice, targeting and removing Americans from the voter rolls without justification undermines voters’ ability to make their voice heard. CLC will continue to protect Americans from unfair voter purges so every voter has equal access to the ballot box this November.” 

“No U.S. citizen should be afraid to vote, and we are proud to have defended Alabamians ahead of the upcoming election. Today’s court decision helps protect Alabama citizens’ freedom to register and vote without concerns about government interference or intimidation,” said CLC’s Senior Legal Counsel, Kate Huddleston.

“We are pleased with the court's swift action to protect Alabama voters from an unlawful purge and ensure they can fully participate in the upcoming elections," said Kathy Jones, president of the League of Women Voters of Alabama. “This ruling strengthens our democracy by safeguarding access to the ballot for all eligible voters including naturalized citizens who were unfairly targeted and removed from the rolls."

"This is a victory for Alabama voters. It affirms the freedom of voters to participate in the electoral process and the importance of the National Voter Registration Act's 'quiet period' protection for eligible voters," said Jess Unger, senior staff attorney, democracy: voting rights litigation team, Southern Poverty Law Center. "We encourage all Alabama voters to check their registration at AlabamaVotes.gov before the October 21 voter registration deadline and get out to vote on Election Day, November 5."

"States across the country are acting on false narratives and lies and removing eligible voters from their rolls in violation of federal law," said Caren Short, director of Legal and Research for the League of Women Voters. “Unjustly targeting and purging naturalized citizens from the voter rolls is antithetical to our democracy. The League remains committed to ensuring all voters have a voice and can participate fully in our elections."

"This decision underscores the importance of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to protect voters and is a win for voters and for all Alabamians who value a free and fair election," said Michelle Kanter Cohen, Policy Director and Senior Counsel, Fair Elections Center. "The NVRA protects eligible people from just these types of last-minute, inaccurate data-matching programs that threaten citizens' freedom to vote."

“For over 115 years, the NAACP has been fighting for the right to vote. The suppression tactics may look different, but the intent remains the same - silencing Black, and other vulnerable voices,” said Janette McCarthy Wallace, General Counsel, NAACP. “We are proud to advocate on behalf of Alabamians to ensure that the law is followed, and the right to vote protected. Every vote is a voice, and we refuse to be silenced.”

Background:

Just 84 days before voters were set to head to the ballot box to cast their votes in the 2024 election, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen directed Alabama’s Boards of Registrars to immediately inactivate and ultimately remove from the rolls voters who had in the past had a noncitizen identification number issued by the federal government.   

All naturalized citizens at one point had noncitizen identification numbers prior to becoming citizens, so Secretary Allen’s purge clearly included — and by design targeted — qualified U.S. citizens. 

Alabama voters and Alabama organizations that promote voter registration, represented by CLC, Fair Elections Center, and SPLC, filed a lawsuit requesting that the court block the state’s unlawful voter purge program.   

This lawsuit followed the groups’ letter to Secretary Allen demanding that he immediately stop his policy of purging naturalized citizens from the voter rolls ahead of the November 2024 election.   
 

Washington, D.C. — Yesterday, Campaign Legal Center, on behalf of Secure Families Initiative, filed a lawsuit challenging S.B. 189, a new Georgia law that will make it more difficult for counties to dismiss unsubstantiated challenges to an American’s voter registration or their eligibility to vote.     
Many states, including Georgia, allow a registered voter to challenge a fellow American’s voter registration or eligibility to vote. In recent years, these laws have been abused by bad actors who bring hundreds of thousands of unproven challenges.

“Brave service members, their families and other Americans abroad should have the same opportunity to vote as any other American. Our democracy works best when every voter can participate, but S.B. 189 and frivolous mass challenges run contrary to that goal,” said CLC’s Senior Vice President Paul Smith. “CLC is fighting to ensure that all Americans, including those overseas and abroad, exercise their fundamental right to vote in this upcoming election.” 

"We are gravely concerned by the disenfranchisement that these disruptive new election rules will disproportionately have on Georgia’s military voters, who rely on mailing paper ballots from wherever our nation’s security sends them,” said Sarah Streyder, Executive Director of Secure Families Initiative. “Georgia contributes the 3rd-most recruits to our nation’s military of any state, 22 percent of whom identify as Black, and every person serving their nation deserves the right to vote and to have that vote certified.”

Background: 
A new Georgia law, S.B. 189, threatens to prevent Americans living and serving overseas from making their voice heard this November. This law puts voters who have temporarily moved or are temporarily without permanent residential addresses -- such as military members deployed overseas -- at risk of being wrongly challenged.   

Military and overseas voters already face more barriers than the average American in exercising their freedom to vote. They have to request an absentee ballot because they can’t vote in-person, they don’t have the benefit of drop boxes, and living abroad could also mean mail times are less reliable.   
Mass challenge laws have long been used in this country to target recently naturalized citizens, voters of color, student voters and voters with disabilities. S.B. 189 is now targeting the brave people who serve our country. 

CLC represents Secure Families Initiative, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of military members and their families, in the lawsuit, which argues that S.B. 189 violates federal law and infringes on military and overseas voters’ fundamental freedom to vote.

Washington, D.C. — Given increased attention to Elon Musk’s founding of “America PAC,” a super PAC that has made significant political contributions in support of former president Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, and Musk’s appearances at Trump campaign events, Saurav Ghosh — CLC’s Director, Federal Campaign Finance Reform — released the following statement on Federal Election Commission (FEC) rules regarding potential coordination between super PACs and candidates’ campaigns: 

“Voters have a right to a government that is responsive to their needs, not to wealthy special interests. Federal campaign finance laws prohibit coordination between super PACs and candidates’ campaigns. Yet candidates and super PACs often push these legal boundaries, as Donald Trump and Elon Musk—the billionaire founder and primary donor of the “America PAC” super PAC—are doing when Musk regularly appears at Trump’s campaign events. This conveys to everyday voters that Musk and the corporations he leads could enjoy deep access, influence, and power should Trump win the election.     

Solutions need to come from Congress, which can pass laws that more comprehensively define ‘coordination’ and prohibit well-known coordination strategies (e.g., redboxing), and from the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which is responsible for enforcing the federal campaign finance laws that prohibit coordination. Unfortunately, the FEC has a poor track record on this crucial issue: In the nearly 15 years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United effectively gave birth to super PACs, the FEC has almost never enforced the laws prohibiting coordination. Earlier this year, the FEC issued an advisory opinion explicitly permitting super PACs to coordinate with candidates with respect to paid door-to-door canvassing operations — a strategy that Musk’s America PAC immediately adopted to help elect Trump.   

To protect voters’ right to a responsive and accountable government, both Congress and the FEC must do the vital work of ensuring that super PACs — and the wealthy special interests that finance them — are genuinely ‘independent’ of candidates and their campaigns.”