MONTGOMERY, AL — Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen has announced that his office identified 186 individuals listed as noncitizens who were registered to vote in Alabama and has directed their immediate removal from the state voter file. The review was conducted through the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, which is now being used for voter-roll maintenance under a memorandum of understanding between Alabama and DHS-USCIS.
State records indicate that 25 of the 186 individuals were not only registered despite lacking U.S. citizenship status, but are also listed as having cast ballots in previous Alabama elections. Alabama officials describe those votes as illegal under state and federal law.
According to the Secretary of State’s Office, Allen began the process of identifying potential noncitizens in the voter file shortly after entering into the memorandum of understanding, which authorizes the office to utilize SAVE for citizenship verification related to voter-file accuracy. Each person flagged through the system was reportedly notified and given an opportunity to respond with documentation proving U.S. citizenship. Local boards of registrars were instructed to remove individuals who did not provide the requested proof…