Virginia Judge Orders Voters Removed From Rolls be Reinstated, Gov. Youngkin Vows to Appeal
Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced his intention to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that prevents the state from removing potential noncitizens from its voter rolls on Friday.
His announcement came after U.S. Judge Patricia Giles issued an order on Friday to restore all voters removed from the state’s voter rolls in the last 90 days. She determined that these removals were done in a “systematic” manner rather than on a case-by-case basis, which violated federal law.
“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,” Youngkin told Fox News after learning of Giles’ verdict. The ruling notably affects some 1,600 people in the state, according to the outlet.
He stated that his administration would ask the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals for an emergency stay to block the ruling and added that he would appeal to the Supreme Court if need be.
Giles, in her ruling, stated that she believed that Virginia voters were being taken off of the rolls by accident.
“This process has resulted in eligible voters having their voting registration flagged,” she said on Friday.
Giles admitted that ineligible voters should be removed from the rolls, but also noted that states needed to “comply with federal law particularly the right to vote.”
Giles’ ruling follows the Department of Justice (DOJ) taking legal action against the state over its program. It claimed that removing any voters was too close to Election Day and violated the National Voter Registration Act, which requires states to stop any kind of systemic voter roll maintenance 90 days before an election, according to Fox News.
Federal officials also feared that eligible votes would be accidentally removed and would not have time to fix the matter.
“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,” wrote DOJ officials in their Oct. 11 lawsuit.
The initial issue occurred when Youngkin signed an executive order in August allowing the state to perform updates on its voter rolls “daily.”
Virginia was able to compare its list of voters to the noncitizen’s list at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Noncitizens were informed that if they could not provide proof of their citizenship, their voter registration would be canceled in 14 days.
While many have criticized Youngkin, he reassured that voters were legally removed, citing a state law under then-Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine in 2006.
He has also maintained that the system is an “individualized process” to ensure that noncitizens are notified that they will be removed if they cannot require proof of citizenship.
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