“Congress adopted the National Voter Registration Act’s quiet period restriction to prevent error-prone, eleventh-hour efforts that all too often disenfranchise qualified voters,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement. “The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy and the Justice Department will continue to ensure that the rights of qualified voters are protected.”
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Virginia election officials, accusing the state and its conservative leaders of making a concerted effort to strike names from voter rolls even after some residents have begun casting early ballots.
According to WTOP News, the complaint was filed earlier tis week in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. The lawsuit alleges that Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order requiring daily updates to voter lists to remove ineligible voters is in violation of federal statutes.
The National Voter Registration Act, for instance, prohibits most states from reworking voter rolls within 90 days of a federal election.
“Congress adopted the National Voter Registration Act’s quiet period restriction to prevent error-prone, eleventh-hour efforts that all too often disenfranchise qualified voters,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement. “The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy and the Justice Department will continue to ensure that the rights of qualified voters are protected.”
The federal Department of Justice emphasized that “quiet periods” also give voters an opportunity to challenge unlawful or erroneous disqualifications.
But Gov. Youngkin’s executive order was approved on August 7, exactly 90 days before the November 5 federal election. The order instructs election officials to abide by a formal and systematic process to remove voters who are “unable to verify that they are citizens” to the Department of Motor Vehicles.
The lawsuit notes that information from the Department of Motor Vehicles is often inaccurate or outdated, and that many people who may have obtained driver’s licenses and state I.D. cards while non-citizens may have since naturalized.
Gov. Youngkin has since issued a statement defending the state’s policy and criticizing the Department of Justice’s lawsuit.
“With less than 30 days until the election, the Biden-Harris Department of Justice is filing an unprecedented lawsuit against me and the Commonwealth of Virginia, for appropriately enforcing a 2006 law signed by Democrat Tim Kaine that requires Virginia to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls—a process that starts with someone declaring themselves a non-citizen and then registering to vote,” Youngkin said.
“Virginians—and Americans—will see this exactly for what it is: a desperate attempt to attack the legitimacy of elections in the Commonwealth, the very crucible of American Democracy,” Youngkin said in a statement. “With the support of our Attorney General, we will defend these commonsense steps, that we are legally required to take, with every resource available to us. Virgnia’s elections will be secure and fair, and I will not stand idly by as this politically-motivated action tries to interfere in our elections, period.”
Sources
Gov. Youngkin issues statement after DOJ files lawsuit over noncitizen voting in Va.
US Justice Department says Virginia is illegally striking voters off the rolls in new lawsuitv
Join the conversation!