A judicial official in the federal realm temporarily halts Virginia's pre-election action targeted at potentially non-citizen voters from its voter registration list.
Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles aligned with the Biden administration and the entities involved in the lawsuit, concluding that Virginia's method of voter roll removals breached a federal law that prohibits systematic deletions within 90 days of a federal election.
She clarified on Friday that such eliminations should be conducted on an individual basis, as Virginia's approach lacked the necessary space for individual assessments.
The accused parties presented evidence indicating that citizens had been erroneously erased from the rolls under Virginia's policies. Giles acknowledged this issue during her judgement.
The ruling follows a Department of Justice triumph in a similar lawsuit against Alabama for a cleaning process they were implementing within the 90-day timeframe. Upon announcing her decision from the bench on Friday, lawyers representing the state petitioned for a momentary pause, expressing concerns about potential non-citizens being reinstated onto the rolls.
Giles dismissed this argument, stating, "I'm not addressing beliefs, I'm dealing with evidence."
The specter of non-citizens casting ballots in the 2024 election has been a preoccupation among Republicans, even stretching to their presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump. However, instances of non-citizens voting have been shown to be exceptionally rare; a recent audit in Georgia revealed only 20 registered non-citizens - with only nine of them having actually voted.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, boasted about his state's efforts to purge non-citizens with an August executive order – coinciding with the initiation of the 90-day window – and promised that the program would persist and intensify its efforts to expel suspected non-citizens.
Under this program, individuals who marked themselves as non-citizens on a DMV form or had non-citizenship indicated in the DMV records were sent a notification by Virginia election officials, giving them two weeks to affirm their citizenship or face the cancellation of their registration. The program mandated the forwarding of notifications and the initiation of the eradication process for individuals, even if other data suggested that they were in fact citizens. Naturalized citizens can sometimes be mistakenly flagged as suspected non-citizens due to outdated government data.
During a daylong hearing on Thursday, Charles Cooper, representing Virginia, argued that purges targeting non-citizens were not subject to the silence period set forth by the National Voter Registration Act, and that Virginia's procedures did not constitute the kind of "systematic" program addressed in federal law.
He also brought attention to the opportunities given to citizens to rectify false positives, including the chance to re-register at a polling place on Election Day.
On Friday, Giles stated that the possibility of erroneously disenfranchised individuals casting provisional ballots was not enough to preserve the program.
She concluded that the state's actions had "restricted the right of eligible voters to cast their ballots in the same manner as other eligible voters."
Virginia's opponents also contended that same-day registration would not amend the predicament for purged eligible voters aiming to vote via an absentee ballot.
Brent Ferguson, representing immigrant activists and voting rights advocates who filed a lawsuit against the removal program, acknowledged on Thursday that, utilizing the list of purged voters provided to the challengers earlier that week, his team had already identified 18 citizens who had been incorrectly removed.
The ongoing politics surrounding voter eligibility and purge programs has seen Judge Giles rule against Virginia's method, as it infringes on eligible voters' rights.
Given the ongoing lawsuits against states for their voter roll removals, the politics of ensuring fair and accurate voting processes remains a significant topic of debate.
