Judge orders Virginia to reinstate 1,600 voters removed in program targeting noncitizens

U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles, an appointee of President Joe Biden, signaled how she would rule during an all-day hearing on Thursday over the Justice Department’s request to reverse the state’s removal of these voters, citing evidence submitted in court that some people removed from the rolls were eligible voters.

Giles issued an order that found the governor’s executive order violated the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. Since Youngkin’s Aug. 7 announcement that the state would perform daily updates to voter rolls, more than 1,600 people have been removed under the program, and the judge who enjoined the program ordered the restoration of voter rolls within five days.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares released a statement condemning the court’s order after the request was “urged by the Biden-Harris Department of Justice.”

Attorney General Miyares Releases Statement on Court Ruling Regarding Non-Citizens On Voter Rolls
It should never be illegal to remove an illegal voter. Yet, today a Court – urged by the Biden-Harris Department of Justice – ordered Virginia to put the names of non-citizens back…

— Jason Miyares (@JasonMiyaresVA) October 25, 2024

“The Department of Justice pulled this shameful, politically motivated stunt 25 days before Election Day, challenging a Virginia process signed into law 18 years ago by a Democrat governor and approved by the Department of Justice in 2006,” the Republican state attorney general said.

Miyares argued that the Biden-Harris administration was attempting to “weaponize the legal system against the enemies of so-called progress,” calling the litigation “bullying, pure and simple, and I always stand up to bullies.”

The state attorney general said Virginia will appeal Giles’s decision “all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary.” Later Friday he said he had filed an emergency motion to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit seeking an emergency stay.

The order means Virginia must send notices to everyone whose registration was canceled under the program, and the notices must make clear they are still ineligible to vote if they are not U.S. citizens.

Lawyers for Virginia asked Giles if the state would still be required to restore a voter’s registration even if officials suspect that person is not a U.S. citizen. Giles said the state’s program did not provide them with documents such as proof of citizenship status, saying, “I’m not dealing with beliefs. … I’m dealing with evidence.”

But Youngkin disputed the judge’s ruling in a statement following her decision, saying, “Almost all these individuals had previously presented immigration documents confirming their noncitizen status, a fact recently verified by federal authorities.”

He argued that his executive order was merely enforcing a “Virginia law passed in 2006, signed by then-Governor Tim Kaine, that mandates certain procedures to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls, with safeguards in place to affirm citizenship before removal — and the ultimate failsafe of same-day registration for U.S. citizens to cast a provisional ballot. This law has been applied in every Presidential election by Republicans and Democrats since enacted 18 years ago.”

Former President Donald Trump criticized the judge’s decision in a statement to Truth Social on Friday, saying Youngkin “is absolutely right to appeal this ILLEGAL ORDER, and the U.S. Supreme Court will hopefully fix it!”

Toward the end of the federal district court hearing on Thursday, attorneys for the plaintiffs said they needed to submit to Giles an additional thumb drive that included evidence from 75 recent voter registrants who said their applications were denied under the program, pointing to the data as proof that the program was supposedly affecting eligible residents who were still trying to vote in the election.

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Hours of arguments from attorneys for the state, the DOJ, and lawyers for plaintiffs who alleged harm by the governor’s executive order, Giles appeared convinced that the program violated the NVRA requirements against “systematic” voter roll purges 90 days before an election.

Attorneys for the state maintained the program was not systematic and that anyone notified of voter roll removals would have the opportunity to request reinstatement.