Voters hoping to vote early line up outside the Elena Bozeman Government Center for the opening of a polling place in Arlington, Virginia, on September 20, 2024.
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A federal judge on Friday blocked Virginia from purging its voter rolls of alleged noncitizens and ordered the state to reinstate more than 1,600 people who had already been removed from the rolls.
In her ruling, Judge Patricia Giles agreed with the Justice Department’s argument that the purge ordered by Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Aug. 7 was too close to Election Day. The federal government prohibits states from systematically removing people from voter rolls within 90 days of an election.
With Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump locked in a tight race for the White House, the state government said it would immediately appeal the ruling less than two weeks before Election Day.
Yonkin’s order requires election officials to remove from voter rolls every day anyone who indicates on a Department of Transportation form that they are not a U.S. citizen or leaves that portion of the form blank. was.
“Let’s be clear about what happened: Just 11 days before the presidential election, a federal judge ordered the state of Virginia to restore to its voter rolls more than 1,500 people who identify as non-citizens,” Youngkin said. said in a statement about Mr Giles. ‘Judgment.
“Nearly all of these individuals had previously submitted immigration documents confirming their non-citizen status, a fact recently confirmed by federal authorities,” the governor said.
“Virginia will immediately petition the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and, if necessary, the U.S. Supreme Court, for an emergency stay of the injunction,” Youngkin said.
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