Virginia filed an appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court after a Biden-appointed judge ruled last week that the commonwealth must put non-citizens back onto its voter rolls just days before the 2024 election.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles’ order was kept in place by a federal appeals court on Sunday, prompting Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares to take the case to the Supreme Court. Youngkin’s attorneys argued before the federal appeals court that the lower court’s injunction against Virginia purging voter rolls on non-citizens was legally flawed and too disruptive before the election, POLITICO reported.
In a unanimous ruling, the three judges on the appeals court said that Virginia’s process for removing non-citizen voters during a 90-day “quiet period” before the election by using data from the Department of Motor Vehicles appears to violate the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. The judges said that Virginia officials “remain able to prevent noncitizens from voting by canceling registrations on an individualized basis or prosecuting any noncitizen who votes.”
In 2012, however, federal district courts in Florida interpreted the 90-day deadline in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to mean that a state is prohibited from removing a voter from the rolls “based on a change in the residence of the registrant,” not from removing non-citizens.
Youngkin issued an executive order in August to ensure that officials checked voter roll data daily and matched it up with data from the DMV, which resulted in around 1,600 non-citizens being removed from Virginia’s voter rolls.
“It’s commonsense: noncitizens shouldn’t be on our voter rolls. Thank you @JasonMiyaresVA for filing immediately with the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency appeal of the order for Virginia to put over 1,500 people who self-identified as non-citizens back on the voter rolls,” Youngkin posted on X on Sunday.
It’s commonsense: noncitizens shouldn’t be on our voter rolls. Thank you @JasonMiyaresVA for filing immediately with the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency appeal of the order for Virginia to put over 1,500 people who self-identified as non-citizens back on the voter rolls. https://t.co/rY4ymZduqq
— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) October 27, 2024
The Republican governor also said last week that a Virginia law passed in 2006, which was signed by then-Governor Tim Kaine, a Democrat, “mandates certain procedures to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls, with safeguards in place to affirm citizenship before removal–and the ultimate failsafe of same-day registration for U.S. citizens to cast a provisional ballot.”
“This law has been applied in every Presidential election by Republicans and Democrats since enacted 18 years ago,” Youngkin added.
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Youngkin’s voter roll purge was challenged by the Biden-Harris administration’s Justice Department along with a group of private organizations, the Associated Press reported. The DOJ argued that the 90-day “quiet period” before an election ensures that legitimate voters aren’t removed by bureaucratic error.
Following Judge Giles’ order against Virginia last week, former President Donald Trump sounded off and defended Youngkin’s voter roll purge.
“Sleepy Joe Biden and Comrade Kamala Harris ridiculously accuse me of wanting to ‘weaponize’ the Justice Department, when they have done all of the weaponizing. Now, their truly Weaponized Department of ‘Injustice,’ and a Judge (appointed by Joe), have ORDERED the Great Commonwealth of Virginia to PUT NON-CITIZEN VOTERS BACK ON THE ROLLS,” he wrote. “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! Only U.S. Citizens should be allowed to vote. Keep fighting, Glenn – AND REPUBLICANS IN VIRGINIA, KEEP VOTING EARLY! I will be calling in to Glenn’s Rally with Lara Trump tomorrow morning to talk about this crazy Ruling, and announce my final stop in Virginia before Election Day. TUNE IN!”
