DOJ sues Alabama over attempt to remove noncitizens from voter rolls

The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday it is suing Alabama for trying to remove noncitizens from voting lists, arguing the effort comes too close to the presidential election in November.

According to the Washington Times, the DOJ asked a federal judge to order Alabama to put the names of the presumed ineligible voters back on the active voter lists, in part because it claims that some actual citizens were told that they had been moved to an inactive voter file.

The DOJ’s argument also boils down to timing, since Alabama announced its intentions 84 days before the election, which might violate the federal National Voter Registration Act that prohibits the deletion of names from election lists within 90 days of an election.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said that a lawsuit should be viewed as a warning to other states, adding that, “It is critical that Alabama redress voter confusion.”

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen said that his office, using data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has identified 3,251 people who are potential noncitizen voters.

He said it’s “possible” that some people deemed as noncitizens by Homeland Security later became citizens, and he is in the process of helping them verify their status.

“I was elected secretary of state by the people of Alabama, and it is my Constitutional duty to ensure that only American citizens vote in our elections,” Allen said in a statement.

However, Clarke said some of those alleged noncitizens were born in the U.S., thus Allen’s claims are inaccurate.