This week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to reinstate Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) voter purge program. (Adobe Stock)
In a 6-3 order, the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) voter purge program that wrongly canceled the registrations of many naturalized citizens and other eligible individuals on the eve of the Nov. 5 general election. I agreed to revive it.
Therefore, the Commonwealth will no longer be bound by a lower court ruling that ordered election officials to reinstate approximately 1,600 people whose registrations were canceled or marked inactive to the voter rolls.
The court order, which was challenged by three Democratic-appointed judges, did not explain the suspension.
A federal district court judge and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals have ruled that Virginia’s controversial voter purge program is a violation of the National Voter Registration Act, which prohibits states from systematically deleting voters from voter rolls within 90 days of Election Day. The consensus was that this would likely violate the “quiet period” of the NVRA. federal election.
The federation then asked the Supreme Court to halt the district court’s order and allow authorities to revive the blocked purge plan by Election Day.
In its request for a stay, Virginia said the 1,600 voters in question “self-identify as noncitizens” and argued that the NVRA’s 90-day silence period “does not apply to the removal of noncitizens.” However, the district court determined that the federal claims regarding individuals who identify as noncitizens were not supported by the case’s factual record.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and advocacy groups called on the Virginia Elections Commissioner to routinely remove individuals “identified as non-citizens” who did not respond to background check requests. A lawsuit was filed regarding the Aug. 7 executive order. Obtain citizenship within 14 days.
Additionally, the program at issue required that individuals removed from voter rolls due to suspected non-citizenship be referred to the Virginia Attorney General’s Office for criminal investigation and possible prosecution. .
Both lawsuits highlighted flaws in the program’s methodology for removing purported non-citizens based on outdated and sometimes inaccurate citizenship data from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
Although many naturalized individuals who were not eligible to vote when they obtained their driver’s license have since legally acquired and registered U.S. citizenship, their DMV records do not reflect such changes in citizenship status. Not yet.
The complaint also described how an error-filled purge process mistakenly removed eligible U.S.-born voters from the rolls. For example, Christine Rabassa, a lifelong U.S. citizen who has lived in Virginia for decades, learned that her voter registration had been canceled because she forgot to check the citizenship box on her DMV paperwork.
At the Supreme Court level, 26 Republican attorneys general and the Republican National Committee challenged the case through court briefs, supporting Virginia’s request to reinstate the purge program. Meanwhile, a group of former Republican members of Congress asked the court to continue blocking the purge, arguing that it violates the NVRA.
Just two weeks ago, a judge appointed by President Trump pre-emptively blocked Alabama’s voter purge program at the request of the Justice Department and nonprofit groups. Alabama’s program similarly sought to invalidate the voter registrations of individuals who were reported as noncitizens during the NVRA’s 90-day quiet period.
Read the order here.
Read more about this incident here.
