The DOJ sued Virginia for removing ineligible voters too close to Election Day
Gov. Youngkin and conservatives argue the lawsuit targets election integrity efforts and is politically motivated
Since 2006, Virginia has removed non-citizens from its voter rolls all the way through October
The story
With just three weeks until Election Day, the race is heating up not only on the campaign trail, but in the courtroom.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against Virginia, alleging that the state violated the National Voter Registration Act by removing voters from election rolls too close to the November election.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) signed an executive order in August requiring daily updates to voter lists, including identifying and removing non-citizens. However, the DOJ argues that this process, conducted within 90 days of Election Day, is illegal, risks errors and confusion, and potentially strips American citizens of their right to vote.
Youngkin swiftly condemned the lawsuit, calling it a politically motivated attack on the legitimacy of Virginia's elections.
He pointed out that removing non-citizens from voter rolls all the way through October has been a normal practice in Virginia — a process also taken up by the last two Democratic governors.
The Virginia governor called it “unbelievable” that the DOJ would suddenly instruct the state to stop removing non-citizens from its voter rolls less than 30 days out from the election.
The politics
Critics of the DOJ’s decision to prosecute Virginia, such as Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Virginia state Senator Glen Sturtevant (R), argue that it exposes the Justice Department's real priorities — targeting the state for cleaning its voter rolls instead of pursuing those responsible for illegally registering non-citizens.
Mike Davis, a legal adviser to Donald Trump, accused the DOJ of targeting states like Virginia and Alabama for political reasons, claiming that as Democratic leaders see Kamala Harris’ campaign faltering, “the more desperate they’re going to get with their lawfare.”
One entity defending the DOJ’s lawsuit is CBS News, which issued a fact-check on whether it is truly “unprecedented” to block Virginia from cleaning its voter rolls too close to the election. One individual they spoke to claimed that states are using routine yearly list maintenance as evidence of voter roll issues that don’t actually exist.
However, multiple states, including Virginia, Alabama, and Texas, have already purged thousands of non-citizens from their voter rolls, indicating the problem does exist and validating their efforts to ensure voter rolls are in order.
What the media missed
Mainstream media sources reporting on the DOJ’s lawsuit against Virginia often omit a key fact: Virginia removes non-citizens from its voter rolls on a case-by-case basis, not through a large-scale purge, as federal law prohibits.
This individual review process has been required by Virginia law since 2006, and has taken place under Democratic and Republican governors.
The DOJ claims Virginia violated federal law by conducting this voter maintenance too close to the election, but because the state’s actions are not part of a systematic removal, it’s unlikely they actually broke the National Voter Registration Act.
The state also notifies voters multiple times before removing them and allows those wrongly removed to register again on Election Day, which they say keeps them within the law.
By leaving out these important details, many media outlets create a misleading narrative, suggesting Virginia’s actions are more extreme than they really are.
Why it matters
Virginia’s and many other states’ efforts to remove non-citizens from voter rolls are essential to protecting election integrity. Media outlets, including CBS’ Face the Nation, like to constantly remind conservatives that federal law already prohibits non-citizens from voting in federal elections.
However, because many states do not require proof of citizenship when registering to vote, many non-citizens can enroll anyway. Congressional Republicans tried to pass the SAVE Act, requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, but it was a non-starter for Democrats.
10 to 27 percent of non-citizens in the United States may be registered to vote, and up to 2.7 million of them could end up voting in the upcoming election.
