Updated, 5 p.m.: With details throughout.

AUSTIN — Texas will cancel its advisory that questioned the citizenship of 100,000 voters and pay the plaintiffs nearly half a million dollars in attorney's fees in exchange for the lawsuit's dismissal, according to a settlement made public Friday.

"After months of litigation, the state has finally agreed to do what we've demanded from the start — a complete withdrawal of the flawed and discriminatory voter purge list, bringing this failed experiment in voter suppression to an end," said Andre Segura, legal director for the ACLU of Texas, which represented some of the plaintiffs in the case.

"The right to vote is sacrosanct, and no eligible voter should have to worry about losing that right. We are glad that the state has agreed to give up this misguided effort to eliminate people from the voter rolls, and we will continue to monitor any future voter purge efforts by the state to ensure that no eligible Texan loses their voice in our democracy."

Interim Secretary of State David Whitley thanked the Legislature, county officials and stakeholders in the lawsuit "for working with our office to develop a sustainable non-citizen list maintenance process."

"It is of paramount importance that Texas voters can have confidence in the integrity, accuracy, and efficiency of the electoral system in which they participate," Whitley said in a prepared statement. "Today's agreement accomplishes our office's goal of maintaining an accurate list of qualified registered voters while eliminating the impact of any list maintenance activity on naturalized U.S. citizens."

The agreement says the secretary of state's office will rescind its election advisory within five days of the settlement taking effect and will advise county voter registrars and election administrators to take no further action on any data files its office sent them.

The advisory, released by Whitley in January, said the state had identified 95,000 people on Texas voter rolls who had received driver's licenses while in the country legally but were not U.S. citizens. It said 58,000 of those had voted in one or more elections since 1996 and asked counties to investigate whether noncitizens were voting.

It quickly became a flash point for Republican politicians, including President Donald Trump, who have said for years — without evidence — that there is widespread noncitizen voting in the country.

"Voter fraud is rampant," Trump tweeted. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a campaign email to supporters referencing the advisory under the title: "VOTER FRAUD ALERT."

But within days of its release, critics pointed out flaws in the list's methodology that were placing U.S. citizens on the list. Three lawsuits against the state followed. In court, state officials said about a quarter — 25,000 — of the people on the original list for investigation were placed there in error and had already proved their citizenship.

In late March, the U.S. House Oversight Committee, which is led by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., launched an inquiry into the state's attempt to remove people from the voter rolls. Paxton's office treated the congressional probe as a records request and denied the production of related documents.

Though the state can continue culling its voter list for noncitizens under a new procedure outlined in the agreement, it's a significant victory for the plaintiffs, who argued that the state's process was flawed and unfairly discriminated against naturalized citizens. The state will also pay the plaintiffs $450,000 in attorney's fees.

"Thank you to the voting rights advocates who continue to fight for the fundamental rights of all citizens and to the court for ensuring that justice prevails and that constitutional rights are not trampled," Dallas state Rep. Rafael Anchia, a Democrat who leads the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, said in a written statement.

Terms of the settlement

Under the agreement, the state will notify county registrars and election administrators to tell voters who received notices under the original advisory that their registration status is no longer in question, unless the local officials have other basis for an investigation.

Nothing in the settlement "is an admission of liability" by any of the defendants, who include Whitley, Paxton, Gov. Greg Abbott and several county officials who sent notices to people who were erroneously on the list.

Although the settlement does not admit liability, the agreement is a significant departure from the state's approach to other voting rights lawsuits this decade — like the battles over its voter ID laws and the drawing of its congressional and statehouse maps — that Texas spent years fighting for a favorable resolution.

But a settlement isn't unheard of. In 2012, Abbott, then the state's attorney general, settled a case with four voters who had been removed from the rolls after their county registrars sent them notices saying they had reason to believe they were dead. Tens of thousands of letters were sent during what the state described as routine maintenance, including some to voters who were still alive.

Friday's agreement outlines a new process by which the secretary of state will flag only registered voters who signed up to vote before they presented documents to the Department of Public Safety indicating that they were not citizens. This would help avoid including people who have already proved their citizenship to DPS.

The secretary of state's office will receive weekly reports from DPS on potential noncitizen voters going forward.

The state will also be required to provide written training material for county election administrators and a new election advisory to replace the original from January. Local county officials who were sued by the plaintiffs said they were confused by state's directions on how to approach their investigations. In court, the state faulted the local officials for not understanding the secretary of state's advisory and blamed them for being sued.

The secretary of state's office will also be required to provide local officials with sample language for the notices to people whose citizenship is being investigated. In one case in the lawsuit, the notice sent to a Smith County woman was not written on official county letterhead, included no form to respond to the county and had left blank a section that was supposed to include a phone number to call if the recipient had any questions. The state faulted the county.

The state will also advise the counties in the ways people can prove their citizenship.

"State officials have wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars and struck fear and confusion into thousands of voters in order to pursue their voter suppression agenda," Beth Stevens, the voting rights legal director for the Texas Civil Rights Project, said in a written statement. "We are glad that this particular effort was stopped in its tracks and we will remain vigilant to ensure that not one single voter loses their right to vote due to the actions of state officials."

Whitley's confirmation status

One potential result of the settlement could be the resurgence of Whitley's confirmation hearing in the Senate, which has been stalled in the chamber since February.

All 12 Democrats have said they could not support Whitley's confirmation because of his actions on the advisory. His confirmation requires the support of two-thirds of senators, or 21 of them if all 31 are present for the vote. The Senate has 19 Republicans who would probably support the governor's nominee, but without the support of any Democrats, confirmation is mathematically impossible.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, has avoided bringing Whitley's confirmation up for debate because Whitley would have to leave office immediately if the chamber rejected him.

But the support of only a few Democrats is needed to confirm Whitley. It's unclear whether the settlement will convince any Senate Democrats to change their mind.

Progress Texas and other voting rights advocates are urging Democrats to maintain their opposition.

Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, called the settlement "a massive victory for voting rights in the state of Texas and for our democracy as a whole." But he said Whitley's nomination as secretary of state remains a nonstarter.

"To protect the sanctity of the vote and to fight back against any future attempts to disenfranchise Texas voters, Governor Abbott must withdraw Whitley's nomination for the full-time Secretary of State position immediately," Hinojosa said. "The Texas Senate deserves the opportunity to vet a new Secretary of State."

If the Senate does not vote to confirm Whitley, he will have to step down when the legislative session ends May 27.