Biden-Harris DOJ sues Virginia for taking non-citizens off voter rolls 'too close' to election

The Biden-Harris Department of Justice has sued the state of Virginia for taking non-citizens off of its voter rolls too close to the election in November. This comes after a similar case was made against the state of Alabama when it removed non-citizens from its voter rolls.

According to a press release from the Biden-Harris DOJ, Virginia "filed a lawsuit against the State of Virginia, Virginia State Board of Elections and Virginia Commissioner of Elections to challenge a systematic state program aimed at removing voters from its election rolls too close to the Nov. 5 general election."

The DOJ cited Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which dictates that a state cannot "later than 90 days prior to the date of a primary or general election for Federal office, [complete] any program" that "systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters."

Governor Youngkin signed an executive order on August 7 that, among other things, would implement "daily updates to the voter lists." These updates included not only taking off non-citizens ineligible to vote but to "add new eligible voters," "remove deceased voters," and other measures.

The DOJ took issue with the "daily updates" to the list in the press release, saying, "The process laid out in the executive order formalized an ongoing list maintenance procedure that has been carried out... at least as recently as late September." The DOJ characterized this as a "systematic voter removal program," even though it is also a program that adds new voters and is done on a daily basis to update the voter list.