WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Virginia to resume removing non-citizens from voter rolls.
The high court, over the dissent of the three liberal justices, granted an emergency appeal from Virginia's Republican administration led by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. The court provided no rationale for its action, which is typical in emergency appeals.
The justices acted on Virginia's appeal after a federal judge found that the state illegally purged more than 1,600 voter registrations in the past two months. A federal appeals court had previously allowed the judge's order to remain in effect.
Former President Donald Trump had criticized the earlier ruling, calling it “a totally unacceptable travesty” on social media. “Only U.S. Citizens should be allowed to vote,” Trump wrote.
The Justice Department and a coalition of private groups sued the state earlier in October, arguing that Virginia election officials, acting on an executive order issued in August by Youngkin were striking names from voter rolls in violation of federal election law.
The National Voter Registration Act requires a 90-day “quiet period” ahead of elections for the maintenance of voter rolls so that legitimate voters are not removed from the rolls by bureaucratic errors or last-minute mistakes that cannot be quickly corrected.
Youngkin issued his order on Aug. 7, the 90th day before the Nov. 5 election. It required daily checks of data from the state Department of Motor Vehicles against voter rolls to identify people who are not U.S. citizens.
People can still register to vote in Virginia's early-voting period or on Election Day, and cast provisional ballots, voting advocates said.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles said elections officials still could remove names on an individualized basis, but not through a systematic purge.
Giles had ordered the state to notify affected voters and local registrars by Wednesday that the registrations had been restored.
Youngkin said the Supreme Court’s action was “a victory for commonsense and election fairness.”
“Clean voter rolls are one important part of a comprehensive approach we are taking to ensure the fairness of our elections,” he said in a written statement.