Biden Administration Sues Virginia Over Attempt to Remove Noncitizens From Voter Rolls

The Biden administration sued Virginia on Friday over the state’s effort to remove noncitizens from its voting lists, arguing the move violated a federal law that bars changes to the rolls so close to an election.

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin in August ordered state officials to conduct “daily updates” to remove ineligible voters, including felons and those who are “unable to verify that they are citizens.”

The Justice Department said that amounts to a formalized cleansing of the voter rolls, which it said violates a 1993 law on voter registration.

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The National Voter Registration Act encourages states to clean their voter rolls but also creates a “quiet period” for the 90 days before a federal election. Taking off individual names of people who request to be removed is considered acceptable, but systemic removals are forbidden.

Mr. Youngkin, in a statement, blasted the case.

“With less than 30 days until the election, the Biden-Harris Department of Justice is filing an unprecedented lawsuit against me and the Commonwealth of Virginia, for appropriately enforcing a 2006 law signed by Democrat Tim Kaine that requires Virginia to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls,” he said.

He said the noncitizens Virginia cleaned from its rolls had previously declared “themselves a non-citizen” and then registered to vote.

“I will not stand idly by as this politically motivated action tries to interfere in our elections, period,” the governor said.

Mr. Youngkin, in announcing his directive in August, said Virginia had removed 6,303 noncitizens from its voter rolls between January 2022 and July 2024.

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