VA Gov. Youngkin says he's purging voting rolls of noncitizens. DOJ says citizens are victims

WASHINGTON ? The U.S. Justice Department sued Virginia Friday to prevent it from cancelling voter registrations in violation of federal law, but Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, says canceling the registration of suspected noncitizens has been state policy for 18 years. Noncitizens account for roughly one of out of a million votes cast, according to studies.

The lawsuit faults the state for removing voters from the registration rolls within 90 days of the election, which is prohibited under a 1993 federal voting law. The department asked a federal judge to order the state to restore the registration of voters who were dropped from the rolls since Aug. 7. The lawsuit also asked the judge to require training of local officials and poll workers to prevent confusion about eligible voters being accused of being noncitizens.

Under the state law, Youngkin signed an executive order Aug. 7 to compare daily the list of people who identified as noncitizens at the Department of Motor Vehicles with the list of registered voters. Local registrars then notify anyone selected for cancellation of their registration to affirm their citizenship within 14 days. If the voter doesn't respond by that deadline, the person will be removed from the registration rolls.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, head of the civil rights division, said in a statement the policy “places qualified voters in jeopardy of being removed from the rolls and creates the risk of confusion for the electorate.”

The lawsuit alleged that voters were identified as noncitizens even if they previously submitted registration forms that affirmed their citizenship, and that the comparison program doesn’t verify the accuracy of the response. Once a registration is flagged, local registrars have no discretion to decline to notify the voter about their pending cancellation “even when the registrar has reason to believe the voter is a United States citizen,” the lawsuit said.

Youngkin said a state law approved in 2006 ? and enforced by Republican and Democratic administrations ? calls for removal of any voter who stated they were a noncitizen while filling out state motor vehicle records and then either accidentally or intentionally became registered to vote.

“This is unprecedented, and I stand by my duty to ensure fair, safe, and accurate elections in Virginia – no exceptions,” Youngkin said in a statement on X.

Youngkin's executive order said 6,303 suspected noncitizens had been removed from the rolls between January 2022 and July 2024.

Some voters appear to have been dropped despite being citizens. For example, in Prince William County, at least 43 of the 162 people removed from the rolls before July 31 were likely U.S. citizens, according to the lawsuit, which cited the findings of the county electoral board.

Postal delays are also a concern for the notifications and replies to meet the 14-day deadline. Virginia Elections Commissioner Susan Beals, the defendant in the lawsuit, told lawmakers at a Sept. 4 hearing that her biggest concern for the election is "the operational performance of the United States Postal Service."

Studies by the Brennan Center for Justice and the libertarian Cato Institute have found noncitizens voting is essentially nonexistent. The Brennan Center studied 42 jurisdictions in 2016 and found 30 cases of suspected noncitizens voting out of 23.5 million votes cast.

But Republicans have made the prevention of noncitizen voting a rallying cry in the closely fought election. The Republican National Committee has filed multiple lawsuits in other states aimed at preventing noncitizen voting.

The Justice Department filed a similar lawsuit against Alabama in September.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DOJ sues Virginia for removing voters from rolls too close to election