Supreme Court Allows Virginia Voter Purge To Stand

Americans worried that noncitizen voting could sway the outcome of next week’s election are welcoming a decision by the United States Supreme Court this week. Wednesday, a majority of the justices blocked a lower-court ruling that prevented the state of Virginia from removing more than a thousand noncitizens from its voter rolls.

As is typical with emergency appeals like this one, the court provided no rationale for the decision. The three liberal justices dissented, while the six conservatives allowed Virginia's voter purge to stay in place while a lawsuit played out.

"That just provides further comfort across the Commonwealth," said Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA), "that this election will be secure."

Gov. Youngkin's Aug. 7 executive order, to check DMV records against current voter rolls, resulted in about 1,600 alleged noncitizen Virginians losing eligibility to vote. But a lower court judge last week ordered they all be reinstated, saying the order violated a federal prohibition against systematic voter roll maintenance within 90 days of an election.

The state appealed, with the support of Oklahoma and 25 other states, and won.

"This is a victory for election integrity," said Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond in a statement. "I am pleased the court affirmed the authority of states to police voter qualifications and keep noncitizens from voting.”

Former Republican National Committee Chief of Staff Mike Reed says the ruling reflects the real concerns that exist around election security, especially in red states like Oklahoma.

"It shows that, I think, Republicans have a right to have some concern about the process of election administration across the country," said Reed, now a principal at Cornerstone, "and make sure it's being done properly."

Oklahoma does a systemwide update of its voter rolls in odd (non-election) years through an address confirmation process. But, as the Oklahoma State Election Board documents monthly, maintenance at the individual level is ongoing.

Critics say Youngkin's purge was systemwide, too close to Election Day, and mostly targeted people who made a mistake filling out a DMV form

"We immediately learned that U.S. citizens were purged," said Brent Ferguson with the Campaign Legal Center, in an interview, "and some didn't even know about that."

In theory, everyone in Virginia is held harmless -- whether they were removed from the voter rolls or not -- because Virginia allows same-day voter registration. Thus, any U.S. citizens mistakenly caught up in the purge can still vote next Tuesday.