Virginia judge orders state to keep voters registered

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Friday promised to appeal the decision as soon as possible. He argued that Virginia authorities cleaned the state’s voter rolls of more than 1,500 voters who self-identified as non-citizens and presented documentation proving they weren’t allowed to vote. U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles earlier on Friday ordered Virginia to reinstate the voters because it took them off the voter rolls less than 90 days before Election Day. Judge Giles was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2021.

How did this case get before Judge Giles? The U.S. Department of Justice sued Virginia earlier this month arguing that the state violated the National Voter Registration Act’s prohibition on cleaning voter registration lists less than 90 days before an election. Gov. Youngkin on Aug. 7, exactly 90 days before the Nov. 5 election, issued an executive order instructing election officials to expunge non-citizen names from the state’s voter rolls. The DOJ said that the order likely deterred otherwise eligible voters from exercising their right to cast a ballot.

Dig deeper: Read WORLD’s 2024 Election Integrity Encyclopedia.