The Supreme Court's conservative majority has granted an emergency appeal from Virginia's Republican administration to resume its purge of voter registrations aimed at preventing non-U.S. citizens from voting. This decision, made over the dissents of the three liberal justices, comes after a federal judge found that the state had illegally purged over 1,600 voter registrations in the past two months.
Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have raised concerns about immigrants voting illegally, with Trump calling the previous ruling a 'totally unacceptable travesty' on social media. The Justice Department and private groups sued the state, arguing that the purge violated federal election law.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order in August requiring daily checks of data from the state Department of Motor Vehicles against voter rolls to identify non-U.S. citizens. U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles ruled that while individualized removals were allowed, a systematic purge was not permissible. Some U.S. citizens were found to have been affected by the purge.
Youngkin hailed the Supreme Court's decision as a 'victory for commonsense and election fairness,' emphasizing the importance of clean voter rolls in ensuring fair elections. However, critics, including the Campaign Legal Center, have condemned the last-minute purge, stating that it includes many known eligible citizens.
Despite the purge, people can still register to vote on Election Day, November 5, and cast their ballots. In a similar case in Alabama, a federal judge ordered the restoration of eligibility for over 3,200 voters who had been deemed ineligible noncitizens, with evidence showing that a significant number of them were legally registered citizens.
