Supreme Court allows Virginia’s purge of voter rolls to stand
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday to allow Virginia to purge hundreds of registered voters from the commonwealth’s rolls in an effort to block non-citizens from casting ballots in this year’s election.
The unsigned order stayed two lower court rulings that found the removal of more than 1,600 voters from the rolls in recent months — at the behest of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin — was illegal.
The court’s three liberals — Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — indicated they would have allowed the lower court rulings to stand.
As is common in emergency appeals, the court did not provide a reason behind the order.
Former President Donald Trump had blasted the lower court rulings blocking the registration removals on social media as “a totally unacceptable travesty,” adding: “Only U.S. Citizens should be allowed to vote.”
Youngkin ordered the removal of the names on Aug. 7 — the last possible day before the election for such an action to take place.
The National Voter Registration Act bars the cancellation of voter registrations less than 90 days before any election — known as a “quiet period” — in order to ensure that anyone mistakenly removed will have sufficient time to correct any issues.
Alexandria US District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles blocked the purge and ordered election officials to notify voters by Wednesday that they had been reinstated.
Giles specified in her ruling that people could be removed from the rolls on a case-by-case basis but not through a wholesale process.
Youngkin said in a statement Wednesday that the high court’s decision was “a victory for commonsense and election fairness.”
“Clean voter rolls are one important part of a comprehensive approach we are taking to ensure the fairness of our elections,” the governor added.
Danielle Lang of the Campaign Legal Center — which sued alongside the Justice Department and other groups to overturn Youngkin’s action — said individuals can still register and cast their vote at their local polling place on Election Day, Nov. 5.
“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,” Lang said.
Almost 6 million Virginians are currently registered to vote.
With Post wires
