The Supreme Court allows Virginia to purge voter rolls before the election

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Republican officials in Virginia to revive a plan aimed at purging non-citizen voters from the voter rolls ahead of next week's election.

The justices blocked a federal judge's order that put the program on hold and ordered the state to add 1,600 voters back to the rolls.

The brief order noted that the court's three liberal justices, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, all dissented.

“This is a victory for common sense and electoral justice,” Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican who announced the plan in August, said in a statement.

“Virginians can cast their vote on Election Day knowing that Virginia’s elections are fair, secure and free from politically motivated interference,” he added.

Virginia has same-day voter registration, meaning any eligible voter removed from the voter rolls should still be able to vote.

Civil rights groups backed by the Biden administration questioned the plan, saying it also resulted in some legal voters being removed from the voter rolls. The Justice Department said that while states can check their voter rolls, they cannot do so immediately before an election.

The National Voter Registration Act prohibits states from systematically removing people from voter rolls within 90 days of an election.

“Everyone agrees that states can and should remove ineligible voters, including non-citizens, from their voter rolls. The only question in this case is when and how they may do so,” Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in court papers filed by the Biden administration.

The state's plan subjects people to deportation if they check a box on a Department of Motor Vehicles form declaring they are not citizens or if they leave that box blank.

Groups that sued, including the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights, said the process attracted people who may have said they were not citizens at the time but later became U.S. citizens. Both civil rights groups and the Biden administration presented evidence of U.S. citizens who were likely removed from the lists as a result.

In court filings, the groups said that “the record makes clear that citizens will be removed from the voter rolls.” These are voters the 90-day deadline is intended to protect, they added.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles ordered the state to halt its program and restore the voter registrations of more than 1,600 people removed from office in recent months.

The Virginia plan reflects broader, unproven Republican arguments, reinforced by former President Donald Trump, that voting by non-citizen voters is widespread.

This narrative could serve as the basis for challenging the election results if Trump loses on Election Day.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican who has made a name for himself as an anti-immigration hardliner, filed a brief in support of Virginia, joined by 25 other Republican attorneys general.