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A divided Supreme Court allows Virginia to remove suspected non-citizens from voter rolls

A divided Supreme Court allows Virginia to remove suspected non-citizens from voter rolls

Virginia does not have to reinstate about 1,600 people who were recently removed from voter rolls under a controversial program aimed at eliminating potential noncitizens, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

The Justice Department and civil rights groups alleged that U.S. citizens were purged. Last week, a federal district judge ordered the state to halt the program and reinstate voters whose registration was canceled in early August.

But the Supreme Court stayed the district judge’s order, waiving the requirement that those voters be re-registered before Tuesday’s election.

All three liberal justices of the Supreme Court disagreed with the lawsuit announced in concise, one-page order. Neither the court majority nor any of the dissenters detailed their reasons.

The direct effect of the ruling is limited to Virginia. While maintaining voter rolls is routine across the country, most states — including major presidential battlegrounds — are not implementing programs like Virginia’s on the eve of the 2024 election.

Virginia stepped up its program in August after Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin ordered daily audits to compare Department of Motor Vehicles data with state voter rolls. Officials were looking for people who were identified in the DMV database as non-citizens but who were also registered to vote.

In two lawsuits challenging the program, the Justice Department and civil rights groups argued that the Virginia purge violated the “quiet period” of the National Voter Registration Act, a three-decade federal law that prohibits states from “systematically” removing voters from the rolls within 90 days before a federal election .

The trials identified several Americans who were purged and removed from the rolls. The Virginia Immigrant Rights Coalition, the League of Women Voters and other organizations have said Americans were caught because of bureaucratic errors or their own mistakes — such as inadvertently checking the wrong box on forms at the DMV — or became citizens after their last interaction with the DMV.

Some people who were removed from the voter rolls in Virginia have already registered and voted again. Virginia also offers same-day registration, which allows anyone to apply to vote on a provisional ballot that will be counted once eligibility is confirmed by local election officials.

Civil rights groups, however, said it could be difficult for voters who were left off the rolls to obtain an absentee ballot before Election Day. Groups say people showing up at the polls and finding out they are not on the voter roll also causes delays and confusion. The letters sent to suspected non-citizens also mention criminal penalties for voting illegally, which could discourage some citizens from exercising their right to vote, supporters say.

Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have increasingly focused on the alleged threat of noncitizens voting in the run-up to the election, arguing that it is one of several threats to the security and integrity of U.S. elections. Voting in federal elections is already illegal for anyone who is not a U.S. citizen. And while extensive voter registration efforts sometimes result in non-citizens being added to the rolls, actual voting by non-citizens in the U.S. appears to be extremely rare. AND report by the liberal Brennan Center from the 2016 elections, it was estimated that there were 30 cases of suspected non-citizens cast in 42 jurisdictions, with a total of 23.5 million votes cast.

Other states showed small numbers of foreigners on their lists. For example, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, announced last week that his state had conducted an “audit” of its records and documents 20 non-citizens were registered on the list of 8.2 millionnone of whom voted early in this year’s election.

In a statement, Youngkin welcomed the Supreme Court’s ruling and said it strengthened voting security in Virginia.

“Clean voter rolls are an important part of the comprehensive approach we are taking to ensure the integrity of our elections,” Youngkin said. “Virginians can cast their ballots on Election Day knowing that Virginia elections are fair, secure and free from politically motivated interference.”

U.S. District Court Judge Patricia Giles, nominated by President Joe Biden, issued a preliminary injunction on Friday requiring Virginia to reinstate removed voters and attempt to notify them of the reversal. On Sunday, a unanimous three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request by government officials to lift the order, prompting Youngkin to seek urgent intervention from the Supreme Court.

Wednesday’s ruling was the first dispute directly related to this year’s election that appeared to divide the Supreme Court along ideological lines. In March, the court unanimously ruled yes states lacked the power to kick Trump off the presidential ticket as an insurgent, although the justices differed somewhat on the details of this decision. The Court’s liberals vehemently disagreed with its July ruling in the case Trump enjoys presidential immunity for at least some of his actions four years ago this led to him being charged with trying to overturn the election.

But there has been little sign of dissent in court on election issues in recent weeks, as justices rejected a series of requests from former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for his name to be placed on or off the ballot in three different states.

Another potentially controversial election issue is before the Supreme Court: Republicans’ emergency petition to block the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that voters who make mistakes while voting by mail must be able to vote on Election Day on provisional ballots.