US Justice Department sues Virginia over Youngkin voter purge

Justice Department lawyers say Virginia violated federal law that forbids voter removals 90 days before a federal election.

The US Justice Department announced Friday it had filed a lawsuit against Virginia after Gov. Glenn Youngkin directed the removal of thousands of people from the state’s voter rolls. 

The US Justice Department alleged that the State of Virginia, the Virginia State Board of Elections, and the Virginia Commissioner of Elections violated the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 in carrying out a Youngkin-directed state program to remove voters from the state voter rolls too close to the upcoming Election Day on Nov. 5.

The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 prohibits “complete systematic programs” aimed at removing the names of ineligible voters from voter registration lists within 90 days of a federal election, according to the Justice Department. 

Youngkin announced Aug. 7 an executive order that directed Virginia’s Commissioner of the Department of Elections to certify the accuracy of voter lists and “remove ineligible voters.” But such a move places qualified voters in Virginia at risk of being removed from the rolls and confusing voters, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. 

“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 said.

In a statement responding to the lawsuit, Youngkin did not address the cooling-off period at the center of the Justice Department’s allegations and instead claimed without evidence the lawsuit was politically motivated. 

“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 said. 

Youngkin’s “election security measures” have won praise from conservatives, who were quick to defend him as news broke of the Justice Department’s lawsuit, but have drawn criticism from voting rights groups over the legality of the removal of voters. 

Before the the Justice Department filed its lawsuit, the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights and the League of Women Voters of Virginia announced earlier this month they were challenging Virginia’s voter removals in federal court. 

“Instead of protecting Americans’ freedom, Virginia is using stale data to illegally purge voters right before the 2024 Election,” said Bruce Spiva, a senior vice president at Campaign Legal Center. “The Department of Elections is engaged in a process that targets qualified US citizens, and we filed the lawsuit to protect voters’ fundamental freedom to vote.”