Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen (R), Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R), and local election officials in four counties are the targets of a lawsuit brought by four pro-voting organisations and three naturalised citizens, which challenges the state’s voter purge program that targets “noncitizen” voting. Election officials in Alabama have eliminated registered voters who previously possessed a noncitizen identification number as part of a voter purge campaign. The plaintiffs claim that as a result, a large number of naturalised citizens who held noncitizen identity numbers prior to becoming citizens were removed from the state’s voter registries by election authorities.

The plaintiffs contend that certain provisions of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which shield voters from intimidation, unjust removal from the voter rolls, and discriminatory treatment, are violated by this purge. They contend that the state was also in violation of the NVRA’s ninety-day “quiet period,” which forbids the removal of registered voters from the rolls within that time frame. They further contend that this unduly restricts the right to vote guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and transgresses the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. They request that the state’s voter purge scheme be stopped by the court, that any notices of removal previously mailed to voters be withdrawn, and that the registration of any voters who were wrongfully removed from the rolls be reinstated.

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