Virginia governor vows to petition the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary over voter roll issue

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin announced today that he will exhaust all avenues, up to and including petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court for injunctive relief, to block more than 1,500 voters identified by the Commonwealth as non-citizens from being added back onto state voter rolls after a federal judge’s ruling.

Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles, a judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, also ordered the state to work with local registrars to send letters to affected people within five days.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department said the Commonwealth unlawfully removed individuals deemed non-citizens from voter rolls within 90 days before an election, citing a “quiet period” in the National Voter Registration Act that mandates “no such voter cancellation or list maintenance programs may be conducted” within that time period.

In its lawsuit, the Justice Department said some of the people identified as non-citizens are in fact American citizens and therefore eligible to vote. The Commonwealth is among only a few states that require individuals to provide their full nine-digit Social Security number when registering to vote.

The lawsuit stems from an Aug. 7 executive action issued by Youngkin where he directed the Board of Elections across the state to conduct daily updates of the voter rolls. Included were the removal of deceased voters, voters who have moved out of state, and non-citizens. State law directs the Department of Motor Vehicles to send monthly lists of people who failed to identify as citizens to the state Board of Elections, which are further forwarded to local registrars.

“Let’s be clear about what just happened: only 11 days before a Presidential election, a federal judge ordered Virginia to reinstate over 1,500 individuals who self-identified themselves as non-citizens back onto the voter rolls. Almost all these individuals had previously presented immigration documents confirming their non-citizen status, a fact recently verified by federal authorities,” Governor Youngkin said in response to the judicial order.

“This is a Virginia law passed in 2006, signed by then-Governor Tim Kaine, that mandates certain procedures to remove non-citizens from the voter rolls, with safeguards in place to affirm citizenship before removal–and the ultimate fail safe of same-day registration for U.S. citizens to cast a provisional ballot. This law has been applied in every presidential election by Republicans and Democrats since enacted 18 years ago,” the governor further stated.

Audrey Carpenter is the Northern Virginia Bureau Chief for All Virginia News. She can be reached at: audreycarpenter@allvirginia.news