Lawsuit says Alabama voter purge targets naturalized citizens

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Voting rights groups have filed a lawsuit against Alabama’s secretary of state over a policy they said is illegally targeting naturalized citizens for removal from voting rolls ahead of the November election.

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen announced last month that 3,251 people who had been previously issued noncitizen identification numbers will have their voter registration status made inactive and flagged for possible removal from the voter rolls.

The lawsuit filed Friday by the Campaign Legal Center, Fair Elections Center and Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of naturalized citizens and advocacy groups says the method wrongly targets naturalized citizens who once had noncitizen identification numbers before gaining citizenship.

“Alabama is targeting its growing immigrant population through a voter purge intended to intimidate and disenfranchise naturalized citizen,” the lawsuit says.

Allen’s office had not been served with the suit and generally does not comment on lawsuits, Allen spokesperson Laney Rawls said Monday.

In announcing the voter purge, Allen acknowledged the possibility that some of the people identified had become naturalized citizens since receiving their noncitizen number. He said they would need to update their information on a state voter registration form and would be able to vote after it was verified.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include two U.S. citizens who received letters telling them they were being moved to inactive voter registration status because of the purge. One is man born in the Netherlands who became a U.S citizen in 2022. The other is a U.S.-born citizen.

“No American citizen should be denied their freedom to vote, and all Americans have the same freedom to vote regardless of where they were born. Instead of protecting Americans’ freedom to vote in the November election, Alabama is shamefully intimidating naturalized citizens and illegally purging qualified Americans from voter rolls,” Paul Smith, senior vice president of the Campaign Legal Center, said in a statement about the lawsuit.

As what promises to be a tight presidential election approaches, Republicans across the country have raised concern about the possibility of noncitizens voting and states have undertaken reviews of voter rolls and other efforts.

“I have been clear that I will not tolerate the participation of noncitizens in our elections,” Allen said in a statement announcing the voter purge.

Voting by noncitizens is rare, according to a study by the Brennan Center for Justice. In a review of 2016 election data in 42 jurisdictions, election officials found 30 incidents of suspected noncitizen out of 23.5 million votes.

Federal prosecutors in Alabama announced a plea deal last week with a woman from Guatemala who used a false identity to obtain a U.S. passport. Prosecutors said she used the same false identity to vote in 2016 and 2020.