By Patrick Camp, For the News-Aegis

A federal judge has ordered the Alabama Secretary of State’s office to reverse course on its program to remove “noncitizens” from the state’s voter registries ahead of the Nov. 5, election during a preliminary injunction hearing held in Birmingham, Alabama, Wednesday, Oct. 16.

The U.S. Department of Justice, along with a coalition of immigration and voting rights organizations, sued Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen in September after he announced a program directing local boards of registrars to remove more than 3,000 individuals his office had identified as noncitizens from their lists of registered voters on Aug. 13, 84 days before the general election.

The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 allows states to remove names from voter registries but includes a “Quiet Period Provision” which prohibits such action within 90 days of a federal election.

“The Quiet Period Provision helps mitigate the risk that errors in systematic list maintenance will disenfranchise, confuse, or deter eligible voter by ensuring that they have adequate time to address errors and understand their rights,” the complaint from the DOJ said.

After two days of hearings, U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco, a former President Donald Trump appointee, ordered the State to halt the program until the day after the upcoming election.

“For decades, federal law has given states a hard deadline to complete systematic purges of ineligible persons from voter rolls: no later than 90 days before a federal election. This year, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen (1) blew the deadline when he announced a purge program to begin 84 days before the 2024 General Elections, (2) later admitted that his purge list included thousands of U.S. citizens…and (3) in any event, referred everyone on the purge list to the Alabama Attorney General for criminal investigation,” Manasco wrote in her decision on Wednesday.

In a press release announcing the program, Allen conceded how “some individuals who were issued noncitizen identification numbers have, since receiving them, become naturalized citizens and are, therefore, eligible to vote,” by submitting paperwork to reactivate their voter registration status.

During a press call with reporters Wednesday, following the hearing Michelle Kanter Cohen, Policy Director and Senior Counsel for the Fair Election Center, said many details of the process Allen used to compile the list have remained “opaque” other than the fact that individuals who had previously been issued a noncitizen identification number by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security were targeted by the program.

According to court documents submitted by the DOJ, Allen compiled his list by cross referencing voter rolls with driver’s license and ID card data from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and unemployment data from the Alabama Department of Labor. Neither agency requires newly naturalized citizens to update their records.

Cohen said evidence presented in court revealed at least 60 percent of the individuals named on the list had been determined to be U.S. citizens and eligible to vote.

Cohen said roughly 1,000 people included in the purges list had received U.S. citizenship credential on their state issued driver’s licenses at the the time the program was announced and more than 1,000 of the remaining individuals have since taken the necessary steps to prove their eligibility and had been returned to active status.

Allen directed county boards of registrars to list those included in the list in “inactive” status and referred the 3,251 individuals to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office for criminal investigation.

Boards of registrars were also instructed to send letter to each individual a letter which stated, “Secretary of State Wes Allen has provided our Office with information that shows you have been issued a noncitizen identification number by the Department of Homeland Security.” The letter continued to explain, “This letter is informing you that only eligible U.S. citizens that reside in Alabama may register to vote in the state. Therefor, your voter record has been made inactive and you have been placed on the path for removal from the statewide voter list.”

Allen was also ordered to:

— Issue guidance to county boards of registrars to immediately restore voting rights to those who had been inactivated by the program within three days.

— Issue guidance to county boards of registrars to provide a correction letter to each registrant inactivated as part of the program within three days.

— Post template copies of these mailing on the Alabama Secretary of State’s website and issue a press release announcing the court’s order within three days.

— Write a follow-up letter to the Alabama Attorney General’s Office which identifies the individuals inaccurately referred for investigation with five days.

“This action sends a clear message that the Justice Department will work to ensure that the rights of eligible voters are protected,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in a statement following the ruling. “The National Voter Registration Act’s 90 day Quiet Period Provision is an important safeguard to prevent erroneous eleventh-hour efforts that stand to disenfranchise eligible voters. The Justice Department remains steadfast in our resolve to protect voters from unlawful removal from the registration rolls and to ensure that states comply with the mandate of federal law.”

Patrick Camp can be reached at 256-734-2131 ext. 238