Lawsuit says Virginia is illegally purging legitimate voters off the rolls

By The Associated Press
Published October 8, 2024 at 3:00PM

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — A coalition of immigrant-rights groups and the League of Women Voters in Virginia has filed a federal lawsuit accusing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares of an ongoing “purge” of voter rolls that will disenfranchise legitimate voters.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, argues that an executive order issued in August by Youngkin requiring daily updates to voter lists to remove ineligible voters violates a federal law that requires a 90-day “quiet period” ahead of elections on the maintenance of voter rolls.

The quiet period exists to prevent erroneous removals, the lawsuit states. Virginia’s policy of using data from the Department of Motor Vehicles to determine a voter’s citizenship and eligibility will surely disenfranchise legitimate voters, the lawsuit alleges, because the DMV data is often inaccurate or outdated.

“Defendants’ Purge Program is far from … a well-designed, well-intended list maintenance effort. It is an illegal, discriminatory, and error-ridden program that has directed the cancelation of voter registrations of naturalized U.S. citizens and jeopardizes the rights of countless others,” the lawsuit states.

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