The Justice Department had sued the state, alleging that it violated a federal law prohibiting systematic changes 90 days before an election.
A federal judge on Oct. 16 ordered Alabama’s secretary of state to halt its effort to inactivate and move toward removing noncitizens from its voter rolls because doing so violated a federal prohibition on systematic changes 90 days prior to an election.
“For decades, federal law has given states a hard deadline to complete systematic purges of ineligible persons from voter rolls: no later than ninety days before a federal election,” Judge Anna Manasco of the Northern District of Alabama wrote in her preliminary injunction.
“This year, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen … blew the deadline when he announced a purge program to begin eighty-four days before the 2024 general election.”
Her order also requires Allen to issue guidance to each of the state’s 67 counties for them to restore the status of individuals inactivated as part of the program as well as provide a remedial mailing to those individuals.
The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) sued Alabama in September, alleging that the state violated the 90-day Quiet Period Provision included in the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).Allen had announced on