The Biden administration initiates legal action against Virginia, challenging its voter elimination operation program.
The lawsuit follows closely after a comparable challenge by the Justice Department against Alabama officials trying to eliminate voters from the voter list. The 2024 Republican campaign has highlighted the supposed risk of non-citizens voting as a key issue. Yet, instances of non-citizens actually casting ballots are exceptionally scarce.
According to documents filed on Friday, the Justice Department argues that Virginia's voter purge program, instated via an executive order by Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin in August, breaches the National Voter Registration Act's stipulation that any widespread voter removal program must be concluded no later than 90 days prior to the election.
Despite Youngkin's executive order being issued 90 days before the election, the Justice Department is pointing towards evidence suggesting that removals have continued under this order.
The executive order instructed local election authorities to initiate the removal of any voters who declared on DMV forms that they were non-citizens. These voters then receive mailers with a 14-day window to confirm their citizenship, or else face the cancellation of their registrations.
Previously used versions of the program led to the erroneous removal of probable citizens, the Justice Department alleged in its lawsuit, referencing recent remarks from a county election official who remarked that they had scrutinized several voters who had been eliminated under the program's guidelines and found that many had repeatedly affirmed their citizenship, including some with social security numbers.
The lawsuit asserted that local election authorities have no authority under the program to prevent the cancellation of voters who fail to respond to the notices, even if authorities suspect that those voters might be U.S. citizens.
In response to the lawsuit, Youngkin criticized the Biden administration for filing an "unprecedented lawsuit" less than 30 days before the election.
"Virginians - and Americans - will see this for what it truly is: a desperate attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the elections in the Commonwealth, the very heart of American Democracy," Youngkin stated, vowing to defend the policy.
The ongoing lawsuit highlights the significant role of politics in election processes, as both the Justice Department and Governor Youngkin engage in debates over voter registration and eligibility. Furthermore, the politics of voting rights continue to be a contentious issue in the 2024 Republican campaign, with concerns about non-citizen voting remaining a key focus.
