Justice Department Sues Virginia For Purging Voters Just Before Election

The Justice Department sued election officials in Virginia, alleging that a state program is purging voters from the rolls too close to the November 5 presidential election.

The suit, filed Friday in federal court in Alexandria, Va., claims an executive order signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in August to make daily updates to election lists to strike eligible voters violates a section of the National Voting Rights Act.

The Quiet Period Provision requires states stop such maintenance of voter rolls 90 days before an election.

"As the National Voter Registration Act mandates, officials across the country should take heed of the law's crystal clear and unequivocal restrictions on systematic list maintenance efforts that fall within 90 days of an election," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said in a statement.

She said a purge so close to Election Day puts eligible voters at risk of being removed from the voters' lists and "creates confusion for the electorate."

"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," Clarke said.

Federal prosecutors, who filed a similar lawsuit last month in Alabama, said removal programs like Virginia's are often error-prone and don't allow sufficient time for eligible voters who are stricken from the lists to correct mistakes by the state before the election.

Youngkin accused the Biden administration of mounting a "politically motivated" effort to interfere in Virginia's election.

"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, a Republican, said in a statement.

He went on to say that Virginians and Americans will "see this for exactly what it is: a desperate attempt to attack the legitimacy of the elections in the Commonwealth, the very crucible of American Democracy."

Virginia's election 'will be secure and fair, and I will not stand idly by as this politically motivated action tries to interfere in our elections, period," Youngkin said.

The governor signed an executive order on August 7 directing election officials to ensure that security procedures were in place, counting machines were inspected and voter lists were maintained.

"We verify the legal presence and identity of voters using DMV [Department of Motor Vehicles] data and other trusted data sources to update our voter rolls daily, not only adding new voters, but scrubbing the lists to remove those that should not be on it, like the deceased, individuals that have moved, and non-citizens that have accidentally or maliciously attempted to register," he said in a statement at the time.