Month: October 2024

Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced on Monday that 6,500 noncitizens were removed from the Lone Star State’s voter rolls ahead of the 2024 presidential race, following several other Republican-led states that have done so in recent weeks.

Republicans have celebrated the removal of noncitizens from voter rolls as a victory for election security after previously raising concerns about migrants voting in U.S. elections. Critics, however, have accused conservatives of overstating the issue of migrants illegally voting, arguing that while it does happen from time to time, the phenomenon remains rare.

Abbott announced on Monday that more than one million voters, including 6,500 noncitizens, have been removed from the state’s voter rolls.

Others removed from the voter rolls included 6,000 voters convicted of a felony, more than 457,000 people who have died, 463,000 voters on the suspense list, 134,000 who responded to a confirmation notice indicating they have moved, 65,000 who did not respond to a notice of examination and 19,000 who requested to cancel their registration.

“The Secretary of State and county voter registrars have an ongoing legal requirement to review the voter rolls, remove ineligible voters, and refer any potential illegal voting to the Attorney General’s Office and local authorities for investigation and prosecution. Illegal voting in Texas will never be tolerated,” Abbot said in a statement.

Several other states have recently removed noncitizens from their voting rolls.

Newsweek reached out to officials in each state for additional comment via email.

Alabama

In Alabama, Secretary of State Wes Allen wrote in an August 13 press release that he identified 3,251 noncitizens registered to vote in the state and ordered county officials to inactivate those voters.

“I have been clear that I will not tolerate the participation of noncitizens in our elections,” Allen said. “I have even gone so far as to testify before a United States Senate Committee regarding the importance of this issue. We have examined the current voter file in an attempt to identify anyone who appears on that list that has been issued a noncitizen identification number.”

Louisiana

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry issued an order on Monday targeting noncitizen voting, according to the Louisiana Illuminator.

His order required states offering registration forms to include a notice that noncitizen voters, as well as ordering the Office of Motor Vehicles to make a list of people in the state who were issued temporary identification, which Secretary of State Nancy Landry will check.

Ohio

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, announced earlier in August that 597 noncitizens have been removed from the state’s voter rolls. That number includes 138 who appeared to cast a ballot in elections despite not having citizenship.

“I’m duty-bound to make sure people who haven’t yet earned citizenship in this country do not vote in our elections,” LaRose said in a statement. “We’ve so far identified 597 individuals who’ve registered to vote in Ohio despite not being citizens of the United States, as our state constitution requires.”

Earlier in 2024, LaRose removed nearly 155,000 voters who appeared to be abandoned and inactive for at least four consecutive years from the state’s voter rolls.

Virginia

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has also removed noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls.

“The Virginia model for Election Security works. This isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue, it’s an American and Virginian issue. Every legal vote deserves to be counted without being watered down by illegal votes or inaccurate machines. In Virginia, we don’t play games and our model for election security is working,” Youngkin said in a statement.

In an executive order, he wrote that 6,303 non-citizens were removed from the voter rolls between January 2022 and July 2024.

NBC News reported that some of the possible noncitizens may have been due to individuals’ errors when registering to vote. Youngkin’s announcement sparked praise from former President Donald Trump, who wrote in a Truth Social post that the governor is “taking a strong lead in securing the election in November.”

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 27, 20246:33 PM ET 

Hansi Lo Wang

The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit Friday against Alabama and its top election official, alleging a state program violated federal law by removing voters from its election rolls too close to this fall’s general election.

While states can remove a person’s name from their lists of registered voters if, for example, the person asks to be taken off, has died or, in many places, been convicted of certain crimes, the National Voter Registration Act sets what’s known as a “quiet period” before federal elections for most states.

Alabama and other states covered by the federal law are not allowed to systematically remove names fewer than 90 days before a federal election.

On Aug. 13, 84 days before this fall’s Election Day, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, a Republican, announced an effort to “remove noncitizens registered to vote” in the state. According to a press release, Allen identified and instructed county election officials to remove from their voter rolls 3,251 registered Alabama voters who had been “issued noncitizen identification numbers by the Department of Homeland Security.”

Allen also acknowledged in the press release that “some of the individuals who were issued noncitizen identification numbers have, since receiving them, become naturalized citizens and are, therefore, eligible to vote.” Those U.S. citizens would be able to update their voter registration information, the statement added.

But in a statement, the Justice Department characterized this process as a “systematic voter removal program” that has ensnared U.S. citizens, both those born in the United States and those who were naturalized, and put them on a path to no longer appearing on Alabama’s voter registration list.

In August, NPR spoke with a voter who was born in Alabama and received a notice from election officials that his registration had been flagged and he was “on the path for removal from the statewide voter list.”

In an email statement on Friday, Allen declined to comment on the Justice Department’s lawsuit.

Alabama is facing a similar lawsuit filed this month by voting rights groups and citizens in Alabama represented by attorneys led by the Campaign Legal Center.

In an earlier email responding to a notice letter from those groups, Allen wrote: “I will not bow down to threats from ultra-liberal activist groups who will stop at nothing in their quest to see noncitizens remain on Alabama’s voter rolls.”

The August effort from Allen comes as Republicans across the country call for new restrictions to ensure non-U.S. citizens aren’t casting ballots in U.S. elections. It’s already against the law for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and proven instances of noncitizen voting are vanishingly rare.

By Tierney Sneed, CNN

Published 8:40 PM EDT, Fri October 11, 2024

The Biden administration sued Virginia election officials Friday, alleging that they were violating federal law by purging voters flagged as potential noncitizens during the so-called quiet period before an election, when electoral officials are forbidden from undertaking systematic removals of voters from registration rolls.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of a similar Justice Department challenge to a move by Alabama officials to initiate removals of voters from the rolls. Republicans have made the alleged threat of noncitizen voting a central focus of the 2024 campaign, though instances of noncitizens casting ballots are extremely rare.

In court filings Friday, the Justice Department said that Virginia’s purge program, formalized in an August executive order by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, violates the National Voter Registration Act’s requirement that any mass voter removal program be completed no later than 90 days before the election.

Youngkin’s executive order was rolled out exactly 90 days before the election, but the Justice Department is pointing to indications that removals under the order have been ongoing since.

The executive order directed local election officials to initiate removals of any voters who indicated on DMV forms that they were noncitizens. Those voters are sent mailers giving them 14 days to affirm their citizenship or have their registrations canceled.

Earlier iterations of the program caused likely citizens to be removed from the rolls, the DOJ alleged in its lawsuit, pointing to recent comments by a county election official who said that they looked at dozens of voters who had been purged under the program’s protocols and found that many of them had repeatedly affirmed their citizenship, including some with social security numbers.

The lawsuit said that local election officials have no discretion under the program to prevent the cancellation of voters who fail to return the notices even if officials have reason to believe that those voters are US citizens.

In a statement responding to the lawsuit, Youngkin accused the Biden administration of “filing an unprecedented lawsuit” less than 30 days out from the election.

“Virginians – and Americans – will see this for exactly what it is: a desperate attempt to attack the legitimacy of the elections in the Commonwealth, the very crucible of American Democracy,” Youngkin said, while promising to defend the policy.