Supreme Court lets Virginia resume voter purge days before election
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People in line to vote early in Arlington. Photo: AFP via Getty Images
The Supreme Court is allowing Virginia to continue its automatic purging of voters while state officials appeal a lower court's decision temporarily blocking the program.
Why it matters: Multiple outlets have reported that Virginia's program has removed U.S. citizens, and thus, eligible voters, from the state's rolls — and Election Day is in less than a week.
Driving the news: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted Virginia's emergency appeal, with no reasoning, mere days after a federal judge ruled that Virginia purged 1,600 people from the state's rolls too close to Election Day in violation of federal law.
- Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares appealed it, but a Richmond-based court denied his request and upheld the lower court judge's decision on Sunday.
- Miyares appealed it to the Supreme Court on Monday.
Between the lines: Liberal Justices Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor all said they would have denied the emergency application and upheld the lower court's ruling.
The big picture: This is largely a win for Republicans like Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Miyares, who have heralded the program as critical to ensuring noncitizens don't vote — even though there's little to no evidence they do at any significant scale.
- And despite not being a swing state, the issue has thrust Virginia into the national spotlight as Republicans seize on the unsubstantiated claims that non-citizen voting will influence election outcomes in Vice President Harris' favor.
- But in the lower court's decision, U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles said the state lacked proof that they were purging only non-citizens.
At the center of the lawsuits against Virginia's program is the following:
- Youngkin signed an executive order in August requiring daily, instead of monthly, updates to state voter lists to remove ineligible voters.
- The National Voter Registration Act doesn't allow states to make "systematic" changes to voter rolls within 90 days of a federal election to prevent any last-minute mistakes.
- States can still remove voters on an individualized basis within that time frame.
Zoom in: The Justice Department and advocacy groups who sued Virginia over Youngkin's order said the program, which relies on DMV data, targeted actual eligible voters using wrong or outdated information.
- Errors can happen by people forgetting to check the box that says they're a citizen, checking the wrong box or people becoming naturalized citizens and eligible to vote — but the database doesn't reflect the change.
What we're watching: Virginia allows same-day registration for voters, but it's unclear if eligible voters kicked off the rolls will have trouble re-enrolling on Election Day.
Go deeper:
- Virginia is the latest state to face accusations of illegally purging voters
- DOJ accuses Virginia of purging voters too close to election
- Federal judge blocks Virginia's voter purging ahead of election
- Virginia asks Supreme Court to allow voter purge despite lower court block
Editor's note: This story was updated with additional information throughout.