Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) expressed his frustration with the Department of Justice’s recent lawsuit against Virginia for allegedly violating federal election law.
The DOJ sued Virginia for violating the federal prohibition on systematic efforts to remove voters within 90 days of an election after Youngkin signed an executive order requiring the commissioner of the Department of Elections to certify that the department was conducting “daily updates to the voter list” to purge the voter rolls of people who are unable to verify that they are citizens to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
Youngkin said the Justice Department’s lawsuit is an “attack” and election interference.
“With less than 30 days until the election, the Biden-Harris Department of Justice is filing an unprecedented lawsuit against me and the Commonwealth of Virginia, for appropriately enforcing a 2006 law signed by Democrat Tim Kaine that requires Virginia to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls — a process that starts with someone declaring themselves a non-citizen and then registering to vote,” Youngkin said in a statement.
Youngkin claimed that Virginians and the public will see this as a “desperate attempt to attack the legitimacy of the elections in the Commonwealth.”
“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 continued.
According to the Justice Department, U.S. citizens who were identified and notified that their voter legislation was flagged and did not affirm their citizenship within 14 days would be removed from the list of registered voters. The DOJ said this practice has led to citizens having their voter registrations canceled ahead of the November general election.
“Systematic removal programs are more error-prone than other forms of list maintenance, and eligible voters placed on the path to removal days or weeks before Election Day may be deterred from voting or unable to participate in the election on the same terms that they would have but for the Commonwealth’s error,” the filing said.
“By canceling voter registrations within 90 days of Election Day, Virginia places qualified voters in jeopardy of being removed from the rolls and creates the risk of confusion for the electorate,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said.
“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,” Clarke added.
The NVRA allows for a quiet period provision, which aims to prevent lawmakers or other officials from purging names from voter registration lists based on a perceived failure to meet initial eligibility requirements, including the citizenship requirement, at the time of registration.