Alabama secretary of state assures voters swept up in purge that they can vote

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama's secretary of state has sent a letter to thousands of residents who were incorrectly made “inactive” on voter rolls to let them know they are indeed eligible to vote in the November elections.

The letters were sent to comply with a ruling by U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco that halted the voter “purge program” launched by the Alabama Republican Secretary of State Wes Allen in August. The state’s top election official originally touted the program, which made 3,251 registered voters inactive, as a way to begin the “process to remove noncitizens registered to vote in Alabama.”

According to a statement by Allen's office Friday, his earlier news release about the purge “has been superseded by federal court order.”

Testimony in court hearings revealed that approximately two-thirds of the voters swept up in Allen's program were legally registered to vote.

Allen instructed county registrars to send letters to reactivated voters informing them they are now eligible to vote in November.

The letter also assured reactivated voters that they would not be subject to criminal prosecution. Allen had originally said he was sending the list of over 3,000 inactivated voters to the attorney general's office for “further investigation and possible criminal prosecution.”

At least 159 of the original 3,251 people who received the secretary of state's original notice subsequently filled out forms to be removed from the voter rolls entirely, according to court filings. Those voters will not be automatically reregistered.

Clay Helms, Allen's chief of staff, said in written testimony that "a few individuals” indicated that they were noncitizens illegally registered to vote.

Others were legal voters who submitted removal forms by accident or based on confusing instructions from local election officials, according to court documents.

Those voters were informed in a separate letter that they could re-register before the October 21 registration deadline if the removal was a mistake. That deadline passed Monday.