Nonprofits sue Virginia over alleged voter roll ‘purge’ ahead of presidential election

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Two nonprofit organizations are suing the Virginia Department of Elections for an alleged "purge" of voter rolls preventing legitimate voters from participating in the upcoming presidential election. According to the League of Women Voters, the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights and the League of Women Voters of Virginia filed a lawsuit in federal court on Monday, Oct. 7 to challenge the state's policy of "illegally and systemically removing voters from the rolls only one month before the upcoming election." The League of Women Voters said the challenged policy is a result of Executive Order 35, which was signed by Governor Glenn Youngkin in August, and requires state and local election officials to remove individuals from the state voter registration list if Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) records do not indicate U.S. citizenship. However, the complaint explains that Virginia driver's licenses are available to non-citizens and can remain valid for up to eight years, meaning that people who obtained driver's licenses as non-citizens subsequently became United States citizens. According to the DMV, in order for someone to apply for a standard driver's license or ID in Virginia, they must show proof of legal presence, which means that the person is a U.S. citizen, legal permanent resident of the U.S. or is legally authorized to be in the U.S. in an eligible immigration status. The DMV also said that, when conducting an online or in-person transaction at a DMV customer service center, United States citizens who are eligible will be offered an electronic voter registration application. The application will begin the process of registering a person to vote, updating their registration information or pre-registering them to vote if they will not be 18 years old before the next election, unless they decline the offer. The complaint alleges that these citizens, who are lawfully registered to vote, are being unlawfully "purged" from voter rolls based on outdated DMV information. The lawsuit alleges that the purges of Virginia's voter rolls violate the National Voter Registration Act and risk improper removal of eligible voters, particularly those who are naturalized U.S. citizens. The lawsuit states that the Executive Order requires the Department of Elections (ELECT) to send a notice to individuals warning they could be removed from the rolls, and there is no requirement that ELECT or local officials confirm the accuracy of the DMV information the notice relies on. According to state law, individual voters must respond to the notice mailed by the general registrar within 14 days to avoid removal, a burden the lawsuit alleges falls disproportionately on naturalized U.S. citizens. According to the League of Women Voters, the National Voter Registration Act prohibits the conduct of systematic voter list maintenance "within 90 days preceding an election for federal office," and the removal of ineligible voters is permitted but must be based on individualized information or an investigation. "The right to vote is a fundamental one, and states have a responsibility to ensure that eligible voters are not erroneously removed from the voter rolls. Instead, Virginia is fast-tracking removals based on faulty DMV data without doing anything to verify its accuracy,” said Ryan Snow, counsel with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are represented by Campaign Legal Center, the Protect Democracy Project, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Advancement Project.