ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) – A federal judge on Friday ordered the state of Virginia to restore more than 1,600 voter registrations that were illegally deleted over the past two months in an attempt to prevent noncitizens from voting.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles granted an injunction filed by the Justice Department against Virginia election officials during a 90-day quiet period before the November election during which states restrict large-scale electoral changes. He claimed that his voter registration had been unfairly canceled. Voter list.
State officials said they plan to appeal.
The Department of Justice and private groups such as the League of Women Voters say many of the 1,600 voters whose registrations were canceled were actually canceled due to bureaucratic errors or simple mistakes such as checking a wrong box on a form. He said he was a citizen of the country.
Justice Department attorney Sejal Jhaveri said during a daylong injunction hearing Thursday in Alexandria, Virginia, that federal law prohibits states from implementing systematic changes to voter rolls in the 90 days before an election. That’s exactly why they are there, he said, “to prevent any harm from being eligible.” Voters were excluded at a time when it would be difficult to correct the situation. ”
Giles said Friday that states are not completely prohibited from removing non-citizens from voter rolls during a 90-day quiet period, but rather than the automated, systematic program that states have adopted. , said it should be removed on an individual basis.
State officials argued, unsuccessfully, that the canceled registrations were based on a careful process aimed at people who indicated to the Department of Land Transportation that they were non-citizens.
Charles Cooper, the state’s attorney, said in arguments Thursday that federal law is not intended to provide protections to noncitizens who, by definition, cannot vote in federal elections.
“Congress could never have intended to prevent the removal of people who were not eligible to vote in the first place,” Cooper argued.
But the plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit said many people are incorrectly identified as noncitizens by the DMV simply by checking the wrong box on a form. Although they could not determine exactly how many of the 1,600 purged voters were actually citizens (Virginia received a court order this week to provide the names and addresses of affected individuals) ), but provided anecdotal evidence of individuals whose registrations had been unfairly revoked.
Cooper acknowledged that some of the 1,600 voters the state has identified as noncitizens are likely citizens, but putting them all back on the rolls likely means “hundreds of noncitizens will be on the rolls.” He said that means he will return. If a non-citizen votes, their legal vote will be invalidated. And that’s harmful,” he said.
Virginia’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, issued an executive order in August that requires daily cross-checking of DMV data with voter rolls to identify noncitizens.
Voters identified as noncitizens were given notice and two weeks to challenge their disqualification before being removed, state officials said. Registration will not be canceled if documents proving citizenship are returned.
Before Jonkin’s executive order, the state checked voter rolls and DMV data monthly under a state law passed in 2006.
The Justice Department unfairly accused Yonkin of upholding laws that his predecessors, including Democrats, had followed, even though he did not take the extraordinary step of ordering daily checks, as he did in an executive order. He said he is targeting.
“Let’s be clear about what happened: Just 11 days before the presidential election, a federal judge ordered the state of Virginia to restore to its voter rolls more than 1,500 people who identify as non-citizens,” Youngkin said. he said in a later statement. Friday’s hearing.
Giles questioned the timing of Youngkin’s executive order, which was issued on Aug. 7, the start of a 90-day quiet period required by federal law.
“It is no coincidence that this was announced exactly on the 90th day of the quiet period,” she said from the bench on Friday.
Her injunction requires all voter registrations canceled as a result of Youngkin’s executive order to be reinstated and letters to be sent to those voters within five days notifying them of their restored status. are. The letter will also include a reminder to these individuals that if they are, in fact, non-citizens, they will be prohibited from voting under federal law.
The plaintiffs asked the judge to extend the deadline for these voters to request absentee ballots, but Giles rejected the request, saying it would cause confusion.
“We may not be able to achieve everything we want,” she said.
Virginia’s Republican attorney general, Jason Miyares, criticized the ruling in a statement after Friday’s hearing.
“It should never be illegal to remove illegal voters,” he said. “But today, at the request of the Biden-Harris Department of Justice, the court ordered Virginia to restore the names of noncitizens to its voter rolls, just days before the presidential election.”
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Virginia) had warned Justice Department officials about the exclusion. He praised the ruling.
“Governor Yonkin’s purge served one purpose, and that was to disenfranchise thousands of federal citizens who legally voted. It ends today,” he said.
Approximately 6 million Virginians are registered to vote.
A similar lawsuit was filed in Alabama, where a federal judge last week ordered the state to reinstate the eligibility of more than 3,200 voters deemed ineligible as noncitizens. Testimony from state officials in the case revealed that about 2,000 of the 3,251 invalidated voters were actually legally registered citizens.
