Posted on 09/14/2024 2:02:29 PM PDT by Presbyterian Reporter
A longtime state resident born in Florida and naturalized citizens are among the victims of Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen’s effort to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls, according to a lawsuit they and others filed Friday in federal court in Birmingham.
Allen announced last month that 3,251 registered voters were issued noncitizen identification numbers, prompting him to tell boards of registrars in Alabama’s 67 counties to immediately take steps to remove any non-citizens from the voting rolls.
It is illegal for people who are not citizens to register to vote in Alabama. A federal law enacted in 1996 makes it a crime for non-citizens to vote in federal elections.
Allen sent the list of registered voters who received a non-citizen identification number to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall -- who is also being sued by the plaintiffs -- for further investigation and possible criminal prosecution. Allen said the U.S. government declined his repeated requests for a list of non-citizens currently living in Alabama.
The Campaign Legal Center, Fair Elections Center, and Southern Poverty Law Center filed the lawsuit on behalf of James Stroop, who was born in Melbourne, Florida and has lived in Alabama since 1978; Roald Hazelhoff, a native of the Netherlands who became a legal permanent resident roughly 10 years ago and became a U.S. citizen in 2022; Carmel Michelle Coe, a native of England who moved to the United States after marrying her American husband in 1979 and became a U.S. citizen in 2021; and Emily Asplund Jortner, a Canadian-born woman who first came to the United States on a student visa in 1992 and became a U.S. citizen in 2022.
The plaintiffs, which refer to Allen’s plan as the “Purge Program,” say the effort “is burdensome, unnecessary, and discriminatory.
“It subjects registered, eligible voters identified under the Purge Program to intimidation in the form of a letter threatening them with unjustified criminal 61 prosecution and requires them to re-register under the Re-Registration Process in order to vote and be on the voter rolls,” the suit alleges.
The lawsuit accuses Allen of violating the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
“No American citizen should be denied their freedom to vote, and all Americans have the same freedom to vote regardless of where they were born. Instead of protecting Americans’ freedom to vote in the November election, Alabama is shamefully intimidating naturalized citizens and illegally purging qualified Americans from voter rolls,” Campaign Legal Center Senior Vice President said in a statement. “Our local election officials work hard to make sure only American citizens can vote. In practice, voter purges like what we are seeing in Alabama target naturalized citizens and prevent qualified Americans from exercising their right to vote. Our democracy works best when every American can participate without fear, and CLC will continue to fight for Americans’ freedom to vote.”
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Now 5 people are sueing him because they are Naturalized Citizens.
OK, but what about the other 3,246 registered voters who were issued noncitizen identification numbers????
As the LEFTISTS would say: "There are only a very few instances when Naturalized Citizen gets challenged"
Texas removed over 1,000,000 last month. With no complaints
Suit should be dismissed. Looks like the state just did this for everyone they did not have a birth certificate for in state.
All they did was send a letter for verification of citizenship, otherwise they remain ID’d as non-citizen.
It also said if non-citizens vote, it’s a crime.
Pretty sensible, but not for leftists.
How is James Stroop, who was born in Melbourne, Florida a naturalized citizen?
The fact that the SPLC is involved tells me all I need to know. They are garbage.
I think every communication I’ve ever received from the IRS has intimidated me with threats of fines and prison.
Did they fine the graves yet? Don’t mess with TEXAS!
The swing states and states the ‘RATs are trying to turn into swing states are where the massive problems will be found.
The ones in this article are recent citizens. Did they register to vote before they got naturalized?
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