Alabama – In the lawsuit, the advocacy groups expressed their concerns about the Purge Program’s impact on Alabamians. They argued that the program unjustly removes thousands of individuals from the active voter rolls just before the 2024 general election.
These individuals are then required to go through the process of re-registering in order to vote, even if they have already become naturalized citizens and lawfully registered to vote. The lawsuit highlights Secretary Allen’s belief that these individuals were issued a noncitizen identification number at some point as the sole basis for their removal from the voter rolls.
According to the lawsuit, certain individuals who were eligible to vote were mistakenly included on the purge list due to incorrect information, resulting in the need for them to go through the process of re-registering in order to exercise their voting rights.
Paul Smith, senior vice president of Campaign Legal Center, one of the advocacy groups, expressed his concern about the denial of freedom to vote for American citizens. He emphasized that every American, regardless of their place of birth, should have the same freedom to vote.
Smith criticized Alabama for intimidating naturalized citizens and illegally purging qualified Americans from voter rolls. He pointed out that instead of protecting Americans’ freedom to vote in the November election, Alabama’s actions were shameful.
In a recent development, various advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, took a stand against the purge program and addressed their concerns directly to Allen. They expressed their strong disapproval and urged him to put an end to the program.
In a strongly worded letter, they insisted that your office and other implementing state and local entities in Alabama must immediately halt this program. Additionally, they requested Alabama to provide documents pertaining to the program according to the NVRA.
