Why is Virginia removing 1,600 voters from the register? Who is it affecting?

The US Supreme Court has ruled that the State of Virginia will be able to keep 1,600 voters off their voter roles, reversing an order from a federal judge that came out last week.

A federal judge ruled in favor of the federal government, requiring the state "to cease a program to remove voters from Virginia’s voting rolls between now and the Nov. 5 general election." Additionally, the state would have been required to reinstate those "whose registrations were canceled because of the program unless those voters requested removal or are subject to removal for other reasons." The three liberal justices on the court have stated that they disagree with the decision.

The Republican Governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, applauded the Court’s decision, stating on social media that it will help ensure his residents can feel confident in the election results.

The basis of the case

When filing their brief, the League of Women voters had argued that the mechanism to remove certain voters was flawed. The state’s election officials received records from the Department of Motor Vehicles on non-citizens. In Virginia, a non-citizen can apply for a driver’s license, which expires every eight years. During that period, a person may gain citizenship, but according to their DMV records might be outdated, putting their registration status at risk. The state responded to these allegations by saying that all names given are cross-referenced against the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database. If that system shows that a person is a non-citizen, the state would begin removing them from the voter rolls. However, this process is “systematic,” as opposed to individualized (i.e., the state learns a non-citizen might be registered and investigates and removes that person), and the Justice Department augured that under federal law, such programs are unlawful so close to the election.

Neither the Department of Justice nor the petitioners have stated the number of citizens removed by the state’s process. These organizations may argue that it does not matter if a citizen has had their rights violated, and instead, the case should be considered important because of the precedent it poses.

Why did the Justice Department bring the case forward?

The US Department of Justice brought a case to federal courts after the Virginia Department of Elections removed 1,600 voters from the rolls beginning in August. Some of these removals came during the “Quiet Period,” which begins 90 days before an election under federal law. During this period, states were not allowed to undertake these sorts of programs as they could create confusion and impede the right to vote of citizens who could be arbitrarily removed without their knowledge.

The Justice Department argued that some of the voters impacted were US citizens, though the state said they had removed non-citizens and other residents ineligible to vote. Virginia GOP leaders have argued that these registration cancellation programs were necessary to prevent non-citizens from voting. However, the Justice Department argues that even “certain systematic programs” that examine citizenship, among other eligibility requirements, are prohibited during the Quiet Period.