The U.S. Supreme Court voted yesterday to leave in place Virginia‘s ability to purge non-citizens and other ineligible voters from its rolls. In an emergency petition to the court, Virginia asked the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court’s decision that ordered it to discontinue purging its rolls.
Virginia purged approximately 1,600 voters it considers ineligible to vote from its polls due to non-citizenship status, voters who have moved out of the state or deceased individuals still on the rolls.
Youngkin said voters who believe they were improperly removed from the rolls can still vote in the election because Virginia has same-day registration. Non-citizens are ineligible to vote in United States elections under federal law.
The U.S. Justice Department and a coalition of private groups sued earlier in October, arguing that Virginia election officials, acting on an executive order issued in August by Youngkin, were striking names from voter rolls in violation of federal election law. The Justice Department has also used the state of Alabama for the same thing.
The National Voter Registration Act requires a 90-day “quiet period” ahead of elections for the maintenance of voter rolls so that legitimate voters are not removed from the rolls by bureaucratic errors or last-minute mistakes that cannot be quickly corrected.
Youngkin issued his order on Aug. 7, the 90th day before the Nov. 5 election, requiring election officials across the state to make daily checks of data from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles against voter rolls to identify people who are not U.S. citizens.
Audrey Carpenter is the Northern Virginia Bureau Chief for All Virginia News. She can be contacted at: audreycarpenter@allvirginia.news
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