Judge requires Virginia to restore voting rights to 1,600 individuals previously removed from voter rolls in non-citizens program – One America News Network
OAN Staff James Meyers
11:19 AM – Friday, October 25, 2024
A federal judge ordered Virginia on Friday to restore voter registration rolls for just over 1,600 people who were removed under Governor Glenn Youngkin’s executive order, which aimed to disqualify noncitizens from participating in the election.
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District Judge Patricia Giles, an appointee of the Biden administration, alluded to how she would rule during a hearing on Thursday over the Justice Department’s (DOJ) request to reverse Youngkin’s (R-Va.) decision, noting “some evidence submitted” in court that a percentage of people removed from the rolls were eligible voters.
The DOJ also claimed that the removals were conducted “too close to the November 5th elections” and that it violates 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.
“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 October 11th lawsuit.
Meanwhile, the ruling is expected to be met with pushback from Youngkin, who has highlighted that the voters were removed legally. The executive order signed by the governor in August authorized the state to conduct daily updates to its voter rolls.
The order also 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.
The Virginia governor has repeatedly maintained that voters were removed legally and that the decision is based on precedent from a 2006 state law enacted by then-Governor Tim Kaine, a Democrat.
Youngkin also noted that the law uses an “individualized process” to both 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 in an interview with Fox News.
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