A ruling by a federal judge in Alabama might affect thousands of voters in the upcoming election. U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco issued a preliminary injunction against a voter purging program that Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, R, implemented.
The Justice Department and civil rights groups sued Allen, claiming the program violated a law that bars systemic removal of names from voter rolls 90 days before a federal election. Back in August, the secretary of state’s office identified 3,251 potential noncitizens who were registered to vote.
The office used information collected by state agencies on both unemployment benefits and driver’s license applications. Allen then told local elections offices to make those voters inactive, which requires the person to then provide additional verification before voting.
According to the secretary of state’s chief of staff Clay Helms, 2,000 of those voters were actually legally registered citizens.
The inactive list was also given to the Alabama attorney general for possible criminal prosecution. The judge said that could cause irreparable harm to innocent voters. The lawyer for the secretary of state’s office stated the removal was only a slight inconvenience for legally registered voters.
