Justice Department Sues Virginia For Trying to Remove Non-Citizens From the Voter Rolls

It's not really that complicated. If you're a United States citizen, you can vote. If you're not, you can't. 

However, the United States Department of Justice wants to complicate voter eligibility. And Virginia is the current target.

Virginia law allows the secretary of state to remove non-citizens from the voter rolls at any time. On August 7, 90 days before the election, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin required daily updates to voter lists to remove ineligible voters who violated federal law.  

The National Voter Registration Act requires a 90-day “quiet period” prior to election day. No maintenance of voter registration rolls is allowed, says the Justice Department.

“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,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement. “The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy and the Justice Department will continue to ensure that the rights of qualified voters are protected.”

It's not "all too often" that states "disenfranchise qualified voters" when culling illegal registrations from the rolls. In fact, it's a rarity. We're not talking about the controversial practice of removing voters from the rolls who haven't voted in a few elections or who changed their address and never updated it with election registrars. That's an entirely separate issue that's being litigated in several states.

Virginia is targeting non-citizens who, somehow or other, ended up on the voter registration list. The state claims they are in full compliance with state and federal law in removing the names of non-citizens from voter lists. Under the culling program, 6,300 names of people who answered they weren't citizens on Department of Motor Vehicles forms were removed.

Associated Press:

Youngkin's order formalized a systemic process to remove people who are “unable to verify that they are citizens” to the state Department of Motor Vehicles from the statewide voter registration list.

Virginia election officials are using data from the Department of Motor Vehicles to determine a voter’s citizenship and eligibility, according to the filing. The lawsuit alleges the DMV data can be inaccurate or outdated, but officials have not been taking additional steps to verify a person's purported noncitizen status before mailing them a notice of canceling their voter eligibility.

“With the support of our Attorney General, we will defend these commonsense steps, that we are legally required to take, with every resource available to us. 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 in a statement responding to the lawsuit.

The Justice Department has a novel way of looking at non-citizens who register to vote: “Voters who chose ‘No’ are identified as possible noncitizens even if they have previously submitted voter registration forms where they have affirmed that they are U.S. citizens.”

So, always believe the non-citizens when they claim they're citizens even when they've said they're not? Sheesh.

“Every step in the established list maintenance process is mandated by Virginia law and begins after an individual indicates they are not a citizen,” Christian Martinez told the local NBC affiliate. “Anyone spreading misinformation about it is either ignoring Virginia law or is trying to undermine it because they want noncitizens to vote.”

Many on the left believe that removing any names from the voter rolls for any reason is an attempt to "suppress" the vote. In fact,  any rules at all by Republicans about voting are an attempt to keep blacks and minorities from voting, just because Republican state governments employ them.