Groups Sue Alabama Acknowledging that some of the 3,251 individuals might have become naturalized citizens after being issued noncitizen identification numbers, Allen indicated eligible voters would be able to update their information on a state voter registration form and vote in forthcoming elections.
Passed in 1993, the law aimed to swell the voter rolls while guarding against fraud and ensuring the voter rolls were clean.
Cleaning Voter Rolls Section 7 of the NVRA deals with voter registration administration.
The third sub-section deals with "Voter Removal Programs," specifying that states must complete "Any program the purpose of which is to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters" no later than 90 days prior to a primary or general election for federal office - the so-called "Quiet period" provision.
States may remove voters if asked by registrants, due to criminal conviction or incapacity, death, or to "Correct registration records." On its face, if Alabama's efforts constitute a "Systematic" program to remove ineligible voters, one might think that the case against Alabama is open and shut.
There are problems with the plaintiffs' reading, beyond the apparent absurdity that authorities could only "Systematically" remove noncitizens from the voter rolls more than 90 days out from an election, thereby incentivizing massive fraudulent voter registration in the immediate run-up to an election.
The Sunshine State argued that the NVRA was silent on the removal of noncitizens from the voter rolls, just as it was silent on removing minors or fictitious individuals from the rolls - all of whom would have never been eligible to register to vote in the first place.
The time limit, it asserted, was to ensure that broader and presumably less accurate means of cleaning the voter rolls might not unduly deprive large numbers of eligible voters from exercising their right to vote by being wrongly excluded from the rolls in the run-up to elections.
As the state put it in a separate filing, both active and inactive voters "Can vote on Election Day. Inactive voters simply need to complete a reidentification/update form at the polls." The potential non-citizen population Alabama identified received letters instructing non-citizens to request removal from the voter rolls, and U.S. citizens eligible to vote to complete voter registration forms to restore their active status.
"Every eligible voter among the letter recipients remains eligible to vote," the state wrote in its motion to dismiss.
Time will tell whether it prevails - and noncitizens are to receive the full protection of the federal government to protect voting rights never granted them, should they make it on the voter registration rolls within 90 days of elections.
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