AP Photo/Cliff Owen
On Friday, a Virginia judge ruled that Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s recent purge of close to 2,000 voters from state rolls—within 90 days of November’s election—was illegal. Now, with that election less than two weeks away, the state must reinstate all 1,600 revoked registrations.
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Patricia Giles found that Youngkin’s purge violated the National Voter Registration Act, a federal law that prevents states from removing ineligible voters from the rolls within 90 days of the election.
Last August, Youngkin issued an executive order that included several “ballot security” measures, including the authority to revoke thousands of Virginians’ voter registrations on the suspicion that they were not US citizens—a notion rooted in a GOP conspiracy theory popularized by Donald Trump and his allies.
Since then, his administration has been purging voters in waves, claiming to have revoked the registration of more than 6,000 non-citizens (and tens of thousands of people who had simply died).
“This program puts the voter registration and the fundamental rights of all Virginians on the line based on conspiracies that have no evidence,” said Anna Dorman, counsel with voting rights nonprofit Protect Democracy.
Earlier this year, Protect Democracy joined several other advocacy groups to file a lawsuit against Virginia’s Department of Elections, accusing Youngkin of trying to “delegitimize and subvert the results of the 2024 election if Donald Trump does not win.” A few days later, the Department of Justice filed its own lawsuit against Youngkin’s administration.
Youngkin has claimed that at least 1,500 “self-identified” non-citizens were removed from the rolls, but the data tells a different story.
On Wednesday, during court proceedings, the DOE was ordered to hand over the names of the people affected by this round of removals. According to Dorman, many of those listed were US citizens.
“We’ve only had this list for 48 hours, and we have already confirmed that there are many eligible US citizens who are on this list, both naturalized citizens and people who have been lifelong Virginia voters,” said Dorman.
She added: “There are nearly 100 people on the list who have been registered and voting in the Commonwealth for more than 10 years. So claims that this is impacting non-citizens are not true.”
While advocates hailed the ruling as a significant victory for voting rights, for many, the damage was already done. Since Monday is the deadline for anyone seeking an absentee ballot, those purged can no longer request one.
“Folks have until tonight to request their absentee ballots,” said Dorman, “Unfortunately, people are not going to be able to get back on rolls before that deadline.”
Youngkin plans to appeal the ruling, stating in a tweet that he was “prepared to take this to the U.S. Supreme Court if needed.” Many other Republicans have jumped to the governor’s defense, including former president Donald Trump, who hinted at a stop in Virginia in the near future.
