Oct 16, 2024 Story by: Editor
A federal judge in Alabama has blocked an attempt to remove thousands of voters from the rolls just ahead of the upcoming presidential election.
U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday, halting the voter purge initiated by Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen in August. The purge, which targeted alleged non-citizens, appeared to violate a federal law that prohibits systematic clean-up of voter lists within 90 days of a federal election.
In her strongly worded order, Manasco criticized Allen for missing the legal deadline, stating he “blew” what she called a “hard deadline.” She noted that the majority of the more than 3,200 individuals Allen sought to remove from the rolls were actually U.S. citizens.
Manasco, appointed by former President Donald Trump, also ordered Allen to instruct local election officials to “immediately” notify those affected that their voting rights had been restored. Additionally, she required Allen to update his website to reflect her ruling and clarify that a prior press release about the voter purge “has been superseded by federal court order.”
In response, Allen said he would comply with the ruling. “I will comply with the order of the federal court,” Allen stated. “I have a constitutional duty to ensure that only eligible American citizens are voting in our elections. State and federal laws are clear that only eligible American citizens can vote in our elections. Today’s order does not change that.”
Allen’s effort to remove voters was part of a larger Republican-led campaign aimed at raising concerns about non-citizen voting, especially in the context of the presidential election. However, data shows that voting by non-citizens is rare, even though non-citizens may occasionally end up on voter rolls, usually through programs linked to driver’s license registrations.
Judge Manasco’s decision followed two days of hearings in her Birmingham courtroom, sparked by lawsuits from civil rights and immigrant rights groups, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Kristen Clarke, the DOJ’s civil rights chief, stated, “This action sends a clear message that the Justice Department will work to ensure that the rights of eligible voters are protected.”
Meanwhile, a similar legal battle is unfolding in Virginia, where Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order in August for a similar purge of alleged non-citizens from the voter rolls. U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles, a Biden appointee, is scheduled to hear arguments on October 24 about motions to block Virginia’s program.
Former President Trump, speaking in an interview with Bloomberg News and the Economic Club of Chicago, criticized the DOJ’s actions, saying, “Virginia cleaned up its voter rolls and got rid of thousands and thousands of bad votes and the Justice Department sued them, that they should be allowed to put those bad votes and illegal votes back in and let the people vote.”
DOJ officials, however, argue that their intervention is aimed at upholding the “quiet period” mandated by Congress in the motor-voter law passed more than three decades ago. Source: Politico
