ALEXANDRIA, Va. — More than 200 Hampton Roads voters have been removed from voter registration lists since August, according to federal court documents obtained by 13News Now.
However, those 200+ people must be re-registered, after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction for the Department of Justice (DOJ) and multiple voter advocacy groups Friday.
Executive Order 35, signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in August, required daily updates to voter registration rolls leading up to Election Day to identify non-citizens. The DOJ said the law violated the National Voter Registration Act, which mandates 90 days without systemic changes to voter rosters before an election.
"What we know is this program is discriminatory, especially against naturalized citizens," said Campaign Legal Center counsel Brent Ferguson outside the courtroom on Friday. "The Governor and the Commonwealth as a whole was aware of this law and went ahead with this purge program anyway. We’re certainly glad the judge put a stop to it today."
On the other side, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares issued a statement after the ruling, "It should never be illegal to remove an illegal voter." He criticized the decision, saying, "Yet, today a Court – urged by the Biden-Harris Department of Justice – ordered Virginia to put the names of non-citizens back on the voter rolls, mere days before a presidential election.
"The Department of Justice pulled this shameful, politically motivated stunt 25 days before Election Day, challenging a Virginia process signed into law 18 years ago by a Democrat governor and approved by the Department of Justice in 2006."
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin also reacted to the ruling, saying in a statement, "Let’s be clear about what just happened: only eleven days before a Presidential election, a federal judge ordered Virginia to reinstate over 1,500 individuals–who self-identified themselves as noncitizens–back onto the voter rolls." Youngkin continued, "Almost all these individuals had previously presented immigration documents confirming their noncitizen status, a fact recently verified by federal authorities."
The number of voters previously unregistered by this policy in Hampton Roads is broken down as follows:
- Chesapeake: 39
- Hampton: 22,
- Norfolk: 46
- Newport News: 37
- Portsmouth: 10
- Suffolk: 12
- Virginia Beach: 56
In total, 222 voters were impacted.
League of Women Voters President Joan Porte, heading up one of the advocacy organizations suing, said after the ruling, "This is something we can’t just allow to happen arbitrarily. We need to protect the sacred right of voting."
What comes next? Because we’re so close to Election Day, 13News Now legal analyst Ed Booth said the court may choose to expedite other parts of this case, including an appeal promised by both Gov. Youngkin and Attorney General Miyares.
"Courts are cognizant of time-sensitive issues and political matters such as this," Booth said. "If you don’t act in a certain amount of time, it’s going to become minute based on the passage of time."