“I
have
been
clear
that
I
will
not
tolerate
the
participation
of
noncitizens
in
our
elections,”
Alabama
Secretary
of
State
Wes
Allen
said
on
August
13
as
he
announced
that
he
had
ordered
that
3,251
voters
to
be
kicked
off
the
rolls.
According
to
a
press
release
from
his
office,
Allen
ordered
the
purge
after
discovering
that
the
affected
individuals
“have
been
issued
noncitizen
identification
numbers
by
the
Department
of
Homeland
Security.”
Turns
out
the
word
“have”
is
doing
a
lot
of
work
there,
since
at
least
700
of
the
affected
voters
have
since
become
citizens,
so
the
fact
that
these
people
at
one
point
had
such
an
identifier
is
irrelevant.
But
what
is
relevant
is
Section
8(c)(2)
of
the
National
Voter
Registration
Act
(NVRA),
which
specifies
a
90-day
“quiet
period”
before
the
election
in
which
states
shall
not
“clean”
their
voter
rolls.
A
State
shall
complete,
not
later
than
90
days
prior
to
the
date
of
a
primary
or
general
election
for
Federal
office,
any
program
the
purpose
of
which
is
to
systematically
remove
the
names
of
ineligible
voters
from
the
official
lists
of
eligible
voters.
According
to
calendars
—
which
are
WOKE!
—
August
13
was
84
days
before
November
5,
2024,
and
thus
Allen
was
in
flagrant
violation
of
the
NVRA.
Allen
was
promptly
sued twice,
once
by
a
coalition
of
voting
rights
groups
and
affected
voters,
and
then
last
week
by
the
Justice
Department.
The
DOJ
suit
requests
injunctive
relief
ordering
Allen
to
reactivate
the
purged
voters
and
send
them
curative
letters
explaining
that
he
screwed
up.
The
Civil
Division
didn’t
even
ask
for
Allen
to
undergo
remedial
Election
Law
for
Dummies
training.
(Although
the
court
could
order
it
sua
sponte!)
The
civilian
plaintiffs
include
Roald
Hazelhoff,
who
was
born
in
the
Netherlands
and
became
a
US
citizen
in
2022,
and
James
Stroop,
who
was
born
in
Florida
and
has
been
a
US
citizen
all
his
life.
These
are
embarrassing
errors
that
were
almost
inevitable
when
Allen
announced
in
2023
that
he
was
pulling
the
state
out
of
the
Electronic
Registration
Information
Center
(ERIC),
the
multi-state
compact
which
uses
drivers
license
and
other
data
to
compare
voter
rolls
across
states
and
eliminate
duplication
registrations.
Mumbling
nonsense
about
George
Soros’s
involvement
in
ERIC,
Allen
trumpeted
the
development
of
the
Alabama
Voter
Integrity
Database
(AVID),
which
would
do
what
ERIC
did
but
way
less
accurately.
“We
are
the
first
state
in
the
nation
to
implement
a
system
like
this,”
he
said
proudly.
AVID
seems
to
have
worked
by
combing
public
records
for
any
indication
that
a
voter
was
at
one
time
a
non-citizen,
and
then
flagging
that
person
for
deactivation.
In
the
case
of
Stroop,
he
appears
to
have
inadvertently
checked
a
box
on
an
unemployment
application
in
2021
saying
he
was
a
non-citizen.
When
the
unemployment
office
asked
him
about
it,
he
immediately
amended
his
application.
But
there
are
no
backsies
in
Alabama,
and
so
Allen’s
office
not
only
kicked
him
off
the
rolls,
but
informed
him
he’d
have
to
re-register
when
he
called
up
to
complain
about
the
purge
letter.
The
civilian
plaintiffs
advocate
a
return
to
the
pre-Shelby
County
preclearance
days:
Enter
an
order
pursuant
to
Section
3(c)
of
the
Voting
Rights
Act,
52
U.S.C.
§
10302(c),
retaining
jurisdiction
for
such
period
of
time
as
may
be
appropriate,
and
requiring
preclearance
of
voting
changes
that
the
State
of
Alabama
enacts
or
seeks
to
administer
with
respect
to
removal
of
persons
from
the
voting
rolls
on
grounds
of
alleged
non-citizenship,
as
specified
in
Section
3(c);
The
cases
have
been
consolidated
and
are
before
Judge
Anna
Manasco,
the
Trump
appointee
who
tossed
Alabama’s
racially
gerrymandered
districts
for
violating
Section
2
of
the
VRA.
That
case,
which
went
to
the
Supreme
Court
twice,
also
featured
Allen
as
the
defendant.
Seems
like
he’s
on
track
for
another
cracking
victory
this
go
round.
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.