WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court's conservative majority on Wednesday allowed Virginia to resume its purge of voter registrations that the state says is aimed at stopping people who are not U.S. citizens from voting.
The high court, over the dissents of the three liberal justices, granted an emergency appeal from Virginia's Republican administration led by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. The court provided no rationale for its action, which is typical in emergency appeals.
The justices acted on Virginia's appeal after a federal judge found that the state illegally purged more than 1,600 voter registrations in the past two months. A federal appeals court had previously allowed the judge's order to remain in effect.
"I am very pleased," Youngkin said hours after the ruling. "That just provides further comfort across the Commonwealth that this election will be secure. It will be accurate. It will reflect the will of the voters."
The high court's decision does not reflect the will of the advocates who sued the Commonwealth earlier in October, arguing that Virginia election officials, acting on an executive order issued in August by Youngkin were striking names from voter rolls in violation of federal election law.
"It is sending a disturbing message that our voices are not valued, not wanted, and not American," said Bert Bayou, a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Non-citizen voting is rare in American elections, but the specter of immigrants voting illegally has been a main part of the political messaging this year from former President Donald Trump and other Republicans.
Trump had criticized the earlier ruling, calling it “a totally unacceptable travesty” on social media. “Only U.S. Citizens should be allowed to vote."
The National Voter Registration Act requires a 90-day “quiet period” ahead of elections for the maintenance of voter rolls so that legitimate voters are not removed from the rolls by bureaucratic errors or last-minute mistakes that cannot be quickly corrected.
Youngkin issued his order on Aug. 7, the 90th day before the election. It required daily checks of data from the state Department of Motor Vehicles against voter rolls to identify people who are not U.S. citizens.
"We know that eligible citizens have been disenfranchised by this program," Orion Dajuma with the nonprofit group Protect Democracy said.
Advocates say the use of DMV information for voter registration is outdated and outlined how eligible voters are being removed from the voter rolls. "There are two buckets of people who have been removed the rolls. One, are people who were not citizens when they obtained their driver's license and since became a citizen. Then there's another bucket of people who made an error at the DMV," Ryan Snow with the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law said.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles said elections officials still could remove names on an individualized basis, but not through a systematic purge. Court records indicated that at least some of those whose registrations were removed are U.S. citizens.
Giles had ordered the state to notify affected voters and local registrars by Wednesday that the registrations have been restored.
During a Wednesday news conference, civil rights groups shared concerns that the unlawful purging of eligible voters will dissuade some Virginians from reregistering and voting. If eligible voters are impacted by the program and have trouble voting, advocates urge people to reach out to nonpartisan hotlines.
Nonpartisan election protection hotlines:
English: 866-OUR-VOTE
Spanish: 888-VE-Y-VOTA
Arabic: 844-YALLA-US
Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Korean, Mandarin, Punjabi, Tagalog, Urdu, Vietnamese: 888-API-VOTE
A lawyer for the private groups that sued said people can still register to vote on Election Day, Nov. 5, and cast their ballots.
“The Supreme Court allowing Virginia to engage in a last-minute purge that includes many known eligible citizens in the final days before an election is outrageous,” said Danielle Lang, senior director for voting rights at the Campaign Legal Center.
Nearly 6 million Virginians are registered to vote.
In a similar lawsuit in Alabama, a federal judge this month ordered the state to restore eligibility for more than 3,200 voters who had been deemed ineligible noncitizens. Testimony from state officials in that case showed that roughly 2,000 of the 3,251 voters who were made inactive were actually legally registered citizens.
