The U.S. Supreme Court could rule as early as Tuesday afternoon on an emergency request to block a lower court ruling that orders the state to restore to Virginia’s rolls Wilson and some 1,600 other registered voters. A voter removal program, the lower court found, purged them from the state’s registration list in violation of federal law. The state’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, has said the program enforces a 2006 state law and removes noncitizens who are ineligible to vote. He issued an August executive order requiring county election officials to remove suspected noncitizens flagged by the state on a daily basis.
But as Wilson and other voters’ stories show, the program has also erroneously ensnared U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote.
An emergency request to the U.S. Supreme Court
Civil rights groups and the U.S. Department of Justice sued Virginia over the program earlier this month.
Virginia is asking the high court to weigh in after U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles ruled Friday the state program violated federal law by systematically removing voters too close to a federal election.
Under the National Voter Registration Act, during the 90 days before an election, states must pause certain kinds of voter list maintenance programs that systematically remove voters to ensure mistakes aren’t made too close to the election. The so-called quiet period began this year on Aug. 7, the same day Youngkin issued his executive order.
Giles, who was nominated by President Biden, ordered Virginia to reinstate the 1,600 voters who were taken off by Wednesday. Her order also said the state could still remove noncitizens “through individualized review.”
Youngkin blasted the ruling.
“This is a stunning ruling by a federal judge who is ordering Virginia to reinstate individuals who have self-identified as noncitizens back on the voter rolls,” he told Fox News on Friday.
R&I ~ MJM
Orange of Specious
Article URL : https://www.npr.org/2024/10/29/nx-s1-5169204/virginia-noncitizen-voter-purge