HUNTSVILLE — Last week, the Department of Justice dismissed its lawsuit against Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen.
“It was a lawsuit that challenged our program to make sure that only American citizens were voting in our elections. And we wanted to make sure that there are not any non-citizens on Alabama voter file,” Allen told 256 Today.
Also Friday, several organizations and individuals dropped their lawsuit filed in September against Allen claiming his actions violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and Voting Rights Act of 1965
Last August, just 84 days before the presidential election, Allen’s office announced he had identified 3,251 individuals who are registered to vote in Alabama who had been issued noncitizen identification numbers by the Department of Homeland Security. Allen instructed all 67 county Board of Registrars to “immediately inactivate and initiate steps necessary to remove all individuals who are not United States citizens.”
The National Voter Registration Act bars significant voter roll changes within 90 days of a federal election. A judge blocked the purge in October after the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, the League of Women Voters of Alabama, the Alabama Conference of the NAACP and four affected voters sued Allen.The judge put a hold on the case in December.
Allen said they had tried to work with the Biden administration before taking action.
“We tried to work with the Biden administration last year, even before last year, to get the official list of legal non-citizens that they hold on to, and they are required to get to us if we ask,” he said. “But the Biden administration threw up roadblock after roadblock, and so we couldn’t get that list.
“So we developed our own system, our own process to make sure we had the most clean and most accurate voter files in the country.”
According to the Associated Press, of the more than 3,000 purged, approximately two-thirds of the voters were legally registered to vote.
Allen maintains no one was removed.
“We developed that process,”he said. “And so that’s what the lawsuit was over. Whether or not we had some systematic removal of non-citizens, all we did was move from active to inactive. We didn’t remove anybody.
“In their view, we were purging, but we wanted to make sure we were taking care of legal Alabama voters and taking care of our voter file.”
In a press release announcing the lawsuit’s dismissal Monday, Allen praised the Trump administration.
“I am incredibly pleased to announce that President Trump’s USDOJ has filed to dismiss this case and that the liberal organizations involved have followed suit,” Allen said. “Dismissal is a true victory for the state of Alabama, the Constitution, and election integrity.”
A statement from Acting Assistant Attorney General Mac Warner of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division was also included in the release.
“States are required to maintain accurate voting rolls and remove ineligible voters,” said Warner. “This Administration supports the efforts of states like Alabama that engage in voting security measures that ensure only citizens are voting in our elections. We are dismissing this case from the prior Administration to permit Alabama the time and space to develop a legal, efficient, and effective process to remove noncitizens from their voting roll and secure the vote for their citizens in upcoming elections.”
Allen is adamant he will continue to do whatever is necessary to maintain clean voter file lists.
“Since I came into office, one of the most important things, and we’ve talked about it before, is voter file maintenance is the foundation of election integrity. So we’re not going to stop making sure our voter file is the most clean and most accurate in the country,” he said.
According to Allen, voter file maintenance is like a daily task.
“It’s like daily hygiene,” he said. “I mean, we all take baths, we all showers and brush our teeth. Just like voter file maintenance, you got to stay on top of it. You got to take care of your voter file maintenance.
“If not, you’re going to find your elections processed off in a ditch in a hurry.”
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