The Supreme Court has granted Virginia permission to proceed with a program aimed at removing suspected noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls ahead of the upcoming election. The decision, which came on Wednesday (October 30), overrules a federal judge’s ruling that had temporarily halted the program and mandated the restoration of over 1,600 voters to the rolls. The court’s three liberal justices dissented from the majority decision.
The program, initiated by an executive order from Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin in August, uses data from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles to identify and cancel the voter registration of suspected noncitizens unless they can verify their citizenship within 14 days. The program had been challenged by civil rights and immigrant rights groups, backed by the Biden administration, who argued that it violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). The NVRA generally prohibits states from systematically removing ineligible voters within 90 days of a federal election.
The state’s Solicitor General, Erika Maley, argued that the NVRA’s “quiet period” provision does not apply to the removal of noncitizens, who were never “eligible” to vote in the first place. She also contended that the program is based on an “individualized process” that begins with a personal attestation of noncitizenship on forms filed with the Virginia DMV and ends with the removal of that person from the voter rolls only after they are sent two individualized letters offering opportunities to correct any mistakes about citizenship status.
The Supreme Court’s decision allows the program to resume, despite concerns raised by the Biden administration and civil rights groups that the process could result in the removal of eligible citizens from the voter rolls. The state has argued that any U.S. citizen erroneously removed from the rolls can still cast a provisional ballot on election day. The decision comes just days before the November 5, 2024, federal General Election.
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