Supreme Court lets Virginia resume its purge of voter rolls before the election

WASHINGTON ? The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Virginia to reinstate a purge of suspected noncitizens from voter rolls.

Over the objections of the three liberal justices, the court accepted an emergency request from state officials to intervene after lower courts stopped a state program that had removed more than 1,600 names since Aug. 7.

The majority did not give a reason for their decision, which is common in emergency orders.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, called the order a "victory for commonsense and election fairness."

Danielle Lang, senior director for voting rights at the Campaign Legal Center, which represented advocacy groups in the lawsuit, said it was "outrageous" to allow "a last-minute purge that includes many known eligible citizens."

“But the voters will decide this election, not the courts," Lang posted on the social media platform X. "Eligible Virginia voters should know that regardless of this purge they can register to vote on Election Day & cast their ballots."

Voting rights groups fought the state policy because it removed naturalized citizens from the rolls if they had previously declared themselves noncitizens on motor vehicle forms. Youngkin's program had notified suspected noncitizens that they would be removed if they didn’t affirm their citizenship within 14 days.

But because years might have passed since the motor vehicle declarations, advocacy groups and the Justice Department challenged the program in court, arguing naturalized citizens were being removed from the rolls.

The advocacy groups quoted Prince William County Registrar Eric Olsen, who said at an election board meeting Sept. 30 that his office reviewed 162 people listed as noncitizens in the state’s computer system and found that 43 had voted before. But his office checked and found that all 43 had verified their citizenship ? some as many as five times ? but were still dropped from voter rolls.

A Trump supporter who was purged from the rolls told Cardinal News that he suspects he forgot to mark his citizenship status on the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles form when he renewed his driver’s license.

Another voter, who showed NPR her passport, said she doesn’t know why the DMV incorrectly recorded her as a noncitizen.

In addition to blocking further purges, U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles had ordered the state to restore the registrations of those canceled since Aug. 7 because federal law prohibits voter purges within 90 days of an election when voters may not have enough time to fix errors. A federal appeals court upheld that decision.

But Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares told the Supreme Court the federal “quiet period” provision doesn’t apply to removing noncitizens from the voter rolls because they never should have been on the rolls.

Even if a citizen is mistakenly purged from the rolls, Miyares said, that person can re-register to vote even on Election Day and cast a provisional ballot.

“You are never precluded as a citizen of America and Virginia from voting," Youngkin told reporters on Wednesday. "No one is cut off the rolls."

The Justice Department argued that Virginia could still investigate specific people – including any of the 1,600 – it suspects are noncitizens but can’t use a broad-based removal method this close to an election.

“Everyone agrees that States can and should remove ineligible voters, including noncitizens, from their voter rolls,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the Supreme Court. “The only question in this case is when and how they may do so.”

Studies have found a negligible number of suspected noncitizens vote, presumably because of the threat of criminal charges and deportation if caught. Studies by the Brennan Center for Justice and the libertarian Cato Institute have found noncitizen voting is essentially nonexistent.

But Republicans have made removal of suspected noncitizens a focus of their voter integrity lawsuits this year.

Contributing: Allie Pitchon

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court lets Virginia resume purge of voter rolls