Under the direction of Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin via Executive Order, the commonwealth has removed thousands of noncitizens from its voter rolls, using DMV data to verify citizenship status. The Department of Justice is suing, arguing that it violates the Quiet Period Provision of the National Voter Registration Act requiring states to leave a 90 day minimum window between updating their records and Election Day.
Fox News reports:
The complaint alleges that the state Board of Elections and Virginia Commissioner of Elections Susan Beals violated the federal National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which mandates that states must complete their maintenance program no later than 90 days before an election under a clause known as the Quiet Period Provision.
The agency alleges that Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin violated the NVRA when announcing and subsequently carrying out an executive order which required the election commissioner to regularly update the state’s voter lists to remove individuals who have been “identified as noncitizens,” and had not responded to a request to verify their citizenship in 14 days.
Youngkin argues that the lawsuit is frivolous and politically motivated
“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 signed by Democrat Tim Kaine that requires Virginia to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls – a process that starts with someone declaring themselves a non-citizen and then registering to vote. With the support of our Attorney General, we will defend these commonsense steps, that we are legally required to take, with every resource available to us. Virginia’s election will be secure and fair, and I will not stand idly by as this politically motivated action tries to interfere in our elections, period.”
Senator Mike Lee of Utah didn’t mince words, accusing the administration of election meddling when he wrote on X, “The Biden-Harris administration is engaging in election interference. They’re harassing states that are trying to make sure that noncitizens can’t vote. This is a lawless abuse of power.”
Virginia is far from the first state to discover a staggering number of noncitizens registered to vote, or to have their attempts to remove them be challenged by the administration. Texas requested information from the federal government so they could clear their rolls of noncitizens, but the government has yet to reply. Oregon discovered over 1,000 noncitizens registered to vote.
Fox News continues:
The Justice Department lawsuit against Virginia comes after the agency sued Alabama and its Republican Secretary of State Wes Allen over the state’s voter purge program that targeted noncitizen voters.
The Democrats need all those non-citizen votes!!