A federal judge on Friday ordered Virginia to halt its removal of potential non-citizens from state voter rolls, a decision expected to restore the voting rights to some 1,600 residents ahead of Election Day.
U.S. Judge Patricia Giles issued a preliminary injunction Friday to reinstate all voters that had been removed from state voter rolls in the state in the last 90 days, finding that the removals had been in fact “systematic,” not individualized, and were thus a violation of federal law.
The news comes just weeks after the Department of Justice sued Virginia over its program, arguing the removals were conducted too close to the Nov. 5 elections and violate the National Voter Registration Act– a federal law that requires states to halt all systematic voter roll maintenance for a 90-day “quiet period” before an election.
Justice Department officials also cited concerns that eligible votes may have incorrectly been removed from the rolls without adequate notice, or enough time to correct the mistake.
“States may remove names from official lists of voters in various ways and for various reasons, but they may not carry-on this kind of systematic removal program so close to a federal election,” DOJ officials wrote in filing their Oct. 11 lawsuit.
The injunction upholds this line of thinking, and is likely to be met with fierce pushback from Gov. Glen Youngkin, who has insisted the voters were removed legally and has himself objected to a court ruling less than two weeks before a federal election.
At issue is an executive order signed by Youngkin in August that authorized the state to conduct “daily” updates to its voter rolls.
The order allowed the state to compare its Department of Motor Vehicles noncitizens list against its list of registered voters. Those without citizenship were then informed that their voter registration would be canceled unless they could prove their citizenship in 14 days.
Youngkin has insisted the voters were removed legally and is based on precedent from a 2006 state law enacted by then-Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat.
Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Youngkin defended the state’s system and insisted it is not “systematic.”
Instead, he said, it uses an “individualized process” to determine and notify potential noncitizens that they had been included on the voter registration list, and without further action, would be removed.
“To be clear, this is not a purge,” he said.