CNN —
A federal judge on Friday halted a Virginia program that purged the state’s voter rolls based on indications that they might be non-citizens, and ordered officials to restore the registrations of about 1,600 people removed in the process.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Toliver Giles sided with the Biden administration and private groups in their legal challenge to a federal ban on Virginia’s program that prohibits systematic deletions from voter rolls 90 days before a federal election. determined to be in violation of the law.
“Within the 90-day period, they have to be investigated on a case-by-case basis,” he said Friday, adding that Virginia’s approach “doesn’t leave room for a case-by-case investigation.”
The challengers presented evidence that people were unfairly left off the rolls under Virginia’s system. Ms Giles referred to that issue when passing sentence.
The ruling comes after the Justice Department won a similar lawsuit against Alabama over its 90-day purge program. On Friday, as Giles announced the decision in court, state attorneys asked him to pause pending appeal, raising concerns that some noncitizens could potentially be returned to the rolls. .
The judge rejected that argument, saying, “I’m not dealing with faith. I’m dealing with evidence.”
The supposed threat of non-citizens voting in the 2024 election has been an obsession of the Republican Party, all the way to its White House candidate, former President Donald Trump. However, documented cases of noncitizens voting are extremely rare. A recent audit of Georgia’s 8.2 million people on its rolls found that only 20 noncitizens were registered, and only nine of them voted.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) touted his state’s efforts to purge noncitizens with an executive order in August, just as the 90-day grace period began, continuing the program and removing suspected noncitizens. He promised to take more aggressive steps to eliminate it.
Under this program, if a person tells the Department of Motor Vehicles that they are a non-citizen through a check box, or if the Department of Motor Vehicles has other records indicating that they are a non-citizen, the Election officials will send two notices to the person. It takes several weeks to confirm citizenship or cancel registration. The program requires election officials to proceed with sending notices to individuals and starting the purge process even if they have other information indicating that the voter is actually a citizen. Due to outdated government data, naturalized citizens are sometimes incorrectly tagged as suspected non-citizens.
Yonkin criticized the judge’s ruling Friday and said the state would ask the Supreme Court to overturn it “if necessary.”
“Let’s be clear about what happened: Just 11 days before the presidential election, a federal judge ordered the state of Virginia to reinstate more than 1,500 people who identify as non-citizens to the voter rolls.” the governor said in a statement. He did not cite evidence that voters were also excluded.
During a daylong hearing Thursday, Virginia attorney Charles Cooper said purges focused on noncitizens are not subject to the quiet period imposed by the National Voter Registration Act and that Virginia’s process was “systematic.” He claimed that it was not a thing. Program covered by federal law.
He also noted that Virginia is offering citizens the opportunity to correct false positives, including the ability to re-register at the polls on Election Day.
On Friday, Giles said it was possible that people who were wrongfully purged could vote provisionally, but it would not be enough to salvage the program.
The state’s actions “limited voters’ right to vote like any other voter,” she said.
Opponents in Virginia also argued that same-day registration would not solve the problem of purged voters who tried to vote by absentee ballot.
Brent Ferguson, an attorney representing immigration activists and voting rights groups that sued over the deportation plan, said Thursday that his He said the team had already identified 18 nationals who were unfairly punished. Deleted.
