Will states be able to clean up their voter rolls and remove noncitizens as the 2024 election approaches? If the Biden-Harris administration has its way, that’s not likely to happen. On September 9, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a warning, hinting at legal action against any state authorities or election watchdogs that dare try to purge noncitizens from the rolls within 90 days of Election Day. They’re hanging their argument on the “quiet period” provision of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993, which restricts certain voter list maintenance activities close to an election. And wouldn’t you know it, the DOJ has already followed through, suing Alabama for doing just that.
Alabama’s Secretary of State, Wes Allen, decided to take action back in August, just 84 days out from the election, to begin removing noncitizens from the voter rolls. He’d identified 3,251 individuals registered to vote who also had noncitizen identification numbers issued by the Department of Homeland Security. Of course, this didn’t sit well with the feds. They had blocked Alabama’s previous efforts to get a list of noncitizens living in the state, so Allen took a different approach. His office did acknowledge that some of these people may have become naturalized citizens, and those eligible could update their information and vote in future elections. Seems reasonable, right?
Allen didn’t stop there. He asked the state’s attorney general to investigate and potentially prosecute anyone registered to vote who had been issued a noncitizen ID number. Naturally, this ruffled the feathers of the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice and other advocacy groups, who quickly filed a lawsuit. They claimed that the effort to maintain the voter rolls was discriminatory, targeting naturalized citizens and even U.S.-born citizens caught up in the review by mistake. They also argued it violated the Voting Rights Act and, of course, the beloved “quiet period” of the NVRA.
But wait, it gets better. The DOJ couldn’t resist getting involved, filing their own lawsuit in late September, claiming Alabama’s voter list maintenance violated the NVRA’s “quiet period” restrictions. Now both cases have been consolidated, and Alabama’s fighting back, filing a motion to dismiss the case just days ago.
This battle over election integrity and voter roll maintenance is heating up, and it could have national implications. If Alabama prevails, it might encourage other states to follow suit in cleaning up their voter lists. If the Biden-Harris DOJ gets its way, however, states may find their hands tied, unable to take meaningful action to ensure only eligible citizens are voting in one of the most important elections in recent history.
