Supreme Court allows Virginia to purge voter rolls ahead of the election

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Republican officials in Virginia to revive a plan aimed at removing noncitizen voters from the rolls ahead of next week’s election.

The justices blocked a federal judge’s ruling that put the program on hold and required the state to restore 1,600 voters to the rolls.

The brief order noted that the three liberal justices on the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, all dissented.

“This is a victory for commonsense and election fairness,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican who announced the plan in August, said in a statement.

“Virginians can cast their ballots on Election Day knowing that Virginia’s elections are fair, secure, and free from politically-motivated interference,” he added.

Virginia has same-day voter registration, meaning any eligible voter who was removed from the rolls should still be able to vote on Election Day or during the early voting period, which ends Saturday.

Civil rights groups, backed by the Biden administration, challenged the plan, saying it had led to some legal voters’ being removed from the rolls, too. The Justice Department said that while states can review their voter rolls, they cannot do so right before an election.

“The department brought this suit to ensure that every eligible American citizen can vote in our elections. We disagree with the Supreme Court’s order,” a Justice Department spokesperson said.

States are barred from systematically removing people from voters rolls within 90 days of an election under the National Voter Registration Act. 

The state’s plan flagged people for removal if they checked a box on a Department of Motor Vehicles form declaring they are not citizens or if they left it blank.

Groups that sued, including the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights, said the process drew in people who might have indicated they were not citizens at that time but have subsequently become U.S. citizens. Civil rights groups and the Biden administration both provided evidence of U.S. citizens who had most likely been removed from the rolls as a result.

“This ruling is devastating for Virginia voters because we are essentially allowing eligible voters to be stripped of their fundamental rights,” said Joan Porte, president of the League of Women Voters of Virginia, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

“The Supreme Court should be protecting voters from disenfranchisement, but instead they are allowing an illegal purge of eligible voters,” she added.

In court papers, the groups said that “the record makes clear that citizens are being removed from the voter rolls.” They are voters the 90-day period is “designed to protect,” they added.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles ordered the state to stop its program and restore the voter registrations of more than 1,600 people who were removed in recent months.

The Virginia plan echoes broader, unproven Republican talking points amplified by former President Donald Trump that voting by noncitizen voters is rampant.

The narrative could be used as a basis to challenge election results if Trump loses on Election Day.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican who made his name as an anti-immigration hard-liner, filed a brief backing Virginia that was joined by 25 other Republican state attorneys general.