The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Virginia for its efforts to purge voter rolls within 90 days of an election, citing violations of federal voting laws. This comes after Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order requiring daily updates to voting lists and canceling the registration of individuals identified as noncitizens, even though some were U.S. citizens. The DOJ claims that this action has led to the removal of eligible voters and undermines the integrity of elections.
Youngkin has called the lawsuit politically motivated, while former President Donald Trump praised him and accused the DOJ and Vice President Kamala Harris of undermining democracy. Virginia’s Department of Elections declined to comment on the lawsuit. This is the second DOJ lawsuit in recent months against a state for alleged violations of federal voting laws, aimed at protecting naturalized American citizens from being disenfranchised close to an election.
The Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights has filed a separate lawsuit against Youngkin, alleging that the voter purge process is illegal, discriminatory, and prone to errors. The organization praised the DOJ lawsuit for challenging Virginia’s citizenship purge program, which is said to have disenfranchised hundreds or thousands of eligible voters. The state is currently facing a Senate race between Sen. Tim Kaine and Republican nominee Hung Cao in a traditionally Democratic-leaning state.
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