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Virginia has requested emergency relief from the Supreme Court to remove over 1,600 people from the state’s voter rolls, following a lower court ruling that blocked the state from doing so.
Let’s bring you up to speed: Back in August, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order that directed the removal of certain individuals from the state’s voter rolls, specifically targeting those who had self-identified as non-citizens or were otherwise deemed ineligible. Youngkin’s administration defended the move as necessary to uphold the integrity of voter rolls; however, the Justice Department and voting rights advocates challenged the purge, arguing it violated federal protections that prevent large-scale removals within 90 days of a federal election to safeguard against unwarranted disenfranchisement. Ultimately, a district judge ruled that the voter rolls would need to be reinstated because the purge violated federal law.
What’s going on now: Following the district judge’s ruling, state officials from Virginia are now requesting the Supreme Court to intervene and grant emergency relief to permit the removal of over 1,600 individuals from the state’s voter rolls. In a filing, state officials said the district judge’s order goes against “common sense.”
They added, “Virginia’s sovereignty, confuse her voters, overload her election machinery and administrators, and likely lead noncitizens to think they are permitted to vote, a criminal offense that will cancel the franchise of eligible voters.”
Democrats fire back: In a previous statement, the chair of the Democratic Party in Virginia said, “Donald Trump knows he can’t and won’t win Virginia; he is trying to exploit Glenn Youngkin’s illegal voter purge to satisfy his own sick obsessions. Kamala Harris will win Virginia convincingly, as Trump knows, and any visit from this deranged lunatic will only widen the margin.”
