Virginia appeals order restoring voting eligibility to over 1,500

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (CN) — Virginia’s attorney general quickly appealed a federal judge’s order Friday restoring over 1,500 voter registrations that she found were illegally purged.

“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 noncitizens — back onto the voter rolls,” Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin said in a statement.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles, a President Joe Biden appointee in the Eastern District of Virginia, granted voting rights groups and the Justice Department’s request to stop Virginia from systemically removing any more supposedly noncitizen voters from the state’s voting roll. The order also directs the state to restore registration to anyone removed after Aug. 7.

The Justice Department, along with the League of Women Voters of Virginia, Virginia Coalition of Immigrant Rights and African Communities Together, sued Virginia election officials for following an initiative aimed at removing noncitizen voters that they claim swept legal voters as well.

“Today’s court decision affirms that newly naturalized citizens have the same rights as every other voter,” Joan Porte, president of the League of Women Voters of Virginia, said in a statement. “Purging newly naturalized Virginians is an attack on our democracy. We are proud this ruling protects Virginia voters and ensures their voices are protected and heard.”

The initiative, created by Senate Democrat Tim Kaine while governor in 2006, required monthly checks of DMV data against voter rolls to identify noncitizens, the deceased and those who have moved. Voting rights groups claim that DMV data is outdated, meaning that naturalized legal voters could have had their registration removed.

“The purge program systematically removes Virginians from the voter rolls shortly before the November 2024 general election based solely on the fact that they were at one point identified as a potential noncitizens — according to databases from the DMV or other sources — even if they have since become naturalized citizens and lawfully registered to vote or even if they are U.S.-born citizens who were mistakenly identified as noncitizens,” the voting right groups say in their complaint.

Youngkin issued an executive order 90 days before Election Day, changing the checks from monthly to daily. State officials claimed they notified anyone identified as an ineligible voter and gave them 14 days to dispute the removal.

Giles found that removing en masse anyone who identifies, on purpose or by mistake, as a noncitizen at the DMV from the voter role violates the National Voter Registration Act’s provision prohibiting any large-scale registration removal within 90 days of an election. The act’s provision aims to ensure that any legal voter wrongfully removed has ample time to correct the mistake.

“Last-minute voter purges not only violate the law but also undermine the core principles of our democracy, especially when they are premised on xenophobic lies,” CEO of the League of Women Voters of the United States Celina Stewart said in a statement.

Giles said Virginia officials may continue to pursue individual removal of noncitizen voters. The order directs Virginia to provide a list of all voters removed from the roll.

The legal action added fuel to former Republican President Donald Trump’s rhetoric regarding what he claims is a weaponization of the Justice Department. A Trump-appointed Alabama-based federal judge blocked a similar purge, which the judge claimed fell too close to Election Day.

“This is a totally unacceptable travesty, and Governor Youngkin is absolutely right to appeal this ILLEGAL ORDER, and the U.S. Supreme Court will hopefully fix it!” the former president tweeted.

Virginia Speaker of the House of Delegates Don Scott, a Democrat, accused Youngkin of pandering.

“This was no more than an attempt to pander to MAGA conspiracy theories, delegitimize our elections, please Trump, and earn a quick press hit on Fox News,” Scott said in a statement.

Giles ruled from the bench and is yet to release an opinion. The Fourth Circuit meets for a session next week and already has an emergency election-related case involving North Carolina slated for Monday.

“It should never be illegal to remove an illegal voter,” Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares said in a statement. “The Commonwealth of Virginia will appeal this decision — all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary.”