In Virginia, prosecutors say Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) signed an executive order in early August directing the state Elections Department to make daily updates to state voter rolls. The process included comparing lists of people identified as noncitizens by the Department of Motor Vehicles to lists of people who had registered to vote. (DOJ)
The Justice Department on Friday sued Virginia over a state program that prosecutors said systematically sought to remove people from voting rolls too close to the Nov. 5 elections and improperly included some citizens who are eligible to cast a ballot.
The move signaled that federal authorities are stepping up their enforcement actions around voting rights, coming two weeks after prosecutors filed a similar suit against the state of Alabama.
In Virginia, prosecutors say Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) signed an executive order in early August directing the state Elections Department to make daily updates to state voter rolls. The process included comparing lists of people identified as noncitizens by the Department of Motor Vehicles to lists of people who had registered to vote.
According to the federal lawsuit, the program, which continued at least until late last month, violated a federal law restricting local jurisdictions from purging voter rolls within a 90-day “quiet period.” That statute exists, officials said, because such actions are often error-prone and can cause voter confusion with too little time to fix any mistakes or problems.
Virginia’s program, like Alabama’s, improperly included U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote and instructed them to complete and return an Affirmation of Citizenship form, authorities said. Those people were told in letters from the state that they would be removed from voter rolls if they failed to respond within 14 days, prosecutors said.
“By canceling voter registrations within 90 days of Election Day, Virginia places qualified voters in jeopardy of being removed from the rolls and creates the risk of confusion for the electorate,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement. Responding to the lawsuit, Youngkin accused the Biden administration of being “politically motivated” and vowed to fight the legal action “with every resource available to us.” Youngkin said his administration was seeking to remove noncitizens from voter rolls under provisions from a state law approved in 2006.
“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 in a statement.
While campaigning in Virginia for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Youngkin has warned about threats posed by illegal immigration and boasted about purging 6,303 noncitizens from voter rolls during his first 2½ years in office.
But a Washington Post review of state court records and interviews with elections officials found no evidence that any noncitizens have tried to vote during his term in Virginia, which does not allow residents who are not citizens to vote in any elections. As few as three people have been prosecuted for illegal voting of any kind in Virginia between Jan. 1, 2022, and July of this year, the records showed. None of those cases involved a question of citizenship.
Most of the 6,303-name purge stemmed from errors on paperwork at the Department of Motor Vehicles, officials said. In many cases, legal citizens forgot to check a box indicating citizenship, registrars and other elections officials said.
In other cases, rather than trying to evade detection, people flagged themselves as noncitizens while filling out the voter registration forms that the DMV automatically generates during routine transactions, Susan Beals, the Youngkin-appointed state elections commissioner, told lawmakers last month.
Previous governors have used the same process to remove some voters, but Youngkin has sped up the purges from monthly to daily.
In its lawsuit, the Justice Department is asking a federal court to restore the ability of eligible citizens to vote and to require Virginia to send mailings to clear up any confusion among voters, local officials and poll workers.
