On a recent Friday, an official statement was made by Governor Glenn Youngkin in regards to a lawsuit filed against the Commonwealth of Virginia by the Department of Justice. This comes merely a month before the impending state election. A 2006 Virginia law, which mandates the removal of non-citizens from voter rolls, is the focus of this legal action.
In his response, Governor Youngkin characterized the legal action as an attack of an unprecedented nature, and firmly posited it as politically motivated. He suggested that the ultimate goal of such a move is to cast doubt upon the legitimacy of the electoral process in Virginia.
Youngkin further emphasized that this disputed law was, in fact, endorsed and signed into effect by a previous Democratic governor, Tim Kaine. Its current enforcement, according to Youngkin, is as mandated by law. In essence, prospective voters first have to indicate that they are not citizens before they can register to vote.
The Governor asserted that citizens, both of Virginia and more broadly, will discern the true nature of this lawsuit. He said it was an attempt to negatively impact the credibility of electoral proceedings in the Commonwealth, the bedrock of American democracy.
He also assured that the state won’t stand by idly. With support from Attorney General Jason Miyares, Youngkin affirmed that Virginia plans to mount a defense against the accusations. He referred to the efforts under scrutiny as ‘commonsense steps’, imperative for ensuring the security of elections.
With less than 30 days until the election, the Biden-Harris Department of Justice is filing an unprecedented lawsuit against me and the Commonwealth of Virginia, for appropriately enforcing a 2006 law to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls.
Virginians – and Americans – will…
— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) October 11, 2024
On the other hand, the Department of Justice presented their case. They argue that Virginia’s method of maintaining voter lists contravenes the ‘Quiet Period Provision’, a clause in the National Voter Registration Act. This section prohibits states from conducting wholesale voter roll removals within a 90-day timeframe before elections.
According to the DOJ, these eleventh-hour removals pose risks of wrongly purging eligible voters from the rolls. This process might lead to widespread confusion and potential disenfranchisement among the electorate.
In the lawsuit, the Justice Department’s stance is clear: ‘The right to vote, our democracy’s underpinning, must be safeguarded. Any concerted practices that risk confusing or negating this right are to be stringently avoided. Virginia’s actions put eligible voters at risk and create potential for electoral confusion’.
Department’s lawsuit seeks an injunction aimed at reinstating voting rights to those affected by the purge and halt future infringements of the Quiet Period Provision. Further remedial actions, such as mail notifications to affected voters and comprehensive training for local election officials to deal with potential confusion, were also requested.
To add to the complexity, a joint lawsuit has been filed by various immigrant-rights groups and the League of Women Voters in Virginia accusing Governor Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares of carrying out a ‘purge’ of the voter rolls, therefore disenfranchising legitimate voters.
These groups, including the League of Women Voters, allege that an executive order from the Governor’s office contravenes federal law, as it promotes sweeping voter roll purges within a 90-day window prior to an election – a period reserved for preventing voter list maintenance errors.
Furthermore, the critics targeted the approach of leveraging Department of Motor Vehicles data to ascertain citizenship status. They claimed that this could result in eligible voters, particularly naturalized citizens, being unjustly struck from the rolls. The lawsuit stressed that DMV data was frequently outdated or incorrect.
Defending the matter, it was affirmed that both state and federal laws were adhered to in maintaining voter lists in Virginia. ‘Our established voter list maintenance process follows every step as mandated by the state law’, was the resounding defense.
Amidst this, the lawsuit draws attention to certain exemplified cases of voter roll purges at the local level. For instance, 49 voters in Fairfax County were reportedly removed after failing to verify their citizenship status within a 14-day mandate. Recent reports reveal that over 6,000 voters have been struck off the rolls from January 2022 to July 2023, due to questions surrounding their citizenship status.