Virginia Immigrant & Voting Rights Groups Outraged at SCOTUS Allowing Voter Disenfranchisement

WASHINGTON -The Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights (VACIR), the League of Women Voters of Virginia (LWVVA), and African Communities Together (ACT) are disappointed and alarmed the Supreme Court of the United States has allowed Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin to wrongfully remove qualified voters from the voting rolls less than one week before a federal election. This misguided ruling allows Virginia to disenfranchise over 1600 eligible Virginia voters based on unreliable data and discriminatory lies.

"Voting is a sacred privilege only afforded to US citizens. Governor Youngkin and Attorney General Miyares's efforts to target naturalized citizen voters yielded the disenfranchisement of both natural born citizens and naturalized citizens," Monica Sarmiento, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights, said. "We are deeply disappointed that the vicious voting rights attacks from the Governor and Attorney General have been permitted to prevail. It is a dangerous occurrence when lawful US citizens are carelessly removed from the voter rolls. Although we did not win this battle, VACIR will continue to fight for the right of eligible US citizens to vote."

"The League is incredibly disappointed in this decision," said Caren Short, director of legal and research at the League of Women Voters of the United States. "The Supreme Court should protect voters from disenfranchisement, but instead they are allowing an illegal purge of eligible voters days before a federal election. Every voter has the fundamental right to participate in our democracy, and this ruling allows that fundamental right to be stripped away based on xenophobic lies. The League of Women Voters will never cease in our fight to protect the rights of all voters."

"Today's ruling is not only a disappointment but it further validates the attacks on voter rights across the country at a critical time for our country, when the voices of our communities are being drowned out by racist and xenophobic rhetoric," Solomon Ayalew, DMV chapter director of African Communities Together, said. "ACT will continue to fight for the rights of voters and do everything we can to ensure naturalized citizens, who have had their right to vote challenged and have been casualties in this systematic removal, are heard."

"The ruling today is disappointing and a loss for eligible voters, and only underscores the fact that a major political movement has invested so much in a dangerous strategy to discredit and undermine our electoral process," Anna Dorman, counsel at Protect Democracy, said. "We're watching the harms incurred by that strategy play out right now in real-time in states across the US, as thousands of eligible voters' right to participate in our democracy is being questioned and is in limbo."

"To say this decision is a disappointment is an understatement. The Supreme Court just ignored a key provision of the National Voter Registration Act and the clear fact that Virginia purged eligible voters on the eve of the election," said Ryan Snow, counsel with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. "The list of purged voters includes both new citizens and people born in the US, all of whom have the same sacred right to vote. The decision to block the district court's order stopping this purge is a blow to the many eligible Virginian voters who were unlawfully purged and will now face uncertainty about their ability to cast a ballot that will be counted."

"The Supreme Court allowing Virginia to engage in a last-minute purge that includes many known eligible citizens in the final days before an election is outrageous," said Danielle Lang, Campaign Legal Center's senior director on voting rights. "But the voters will decide this election, not the courts, and CLC will continue to fight alongside Virginians to ensure that they are able to participate in our democracy. Eligible Virginia voters should know that regardless of this purge they can register to vote on Election Day and cast their ballots."

"The Supreme Court's ruling today is a huge loss for Virginia voters. The court's decision allows the last-minute illegal purging of eligible voters who are now disenfranchised in Tuesday's election," said John Powers, director of the Power and Democracy Program at Advancement Project. "Ensuring that every eligible voter can vote is a bedrock of our democracy. We will continue to fight for free, fair, and accessible elections for every voter."

The state of Virginia allows voters to register at their polling place on Election Day. Voters in Virginia who find themselves removed from the rolls should re-register at their polling place when they go to cast their ballot. Voters can learn more and check their registration at VOTE411.org.

Any voters with questions, including on how to use Virginia's same-day registration process, should call or text the Election Protection Hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE, or one of the bilingual hotlines at 888-VE-Y-VOTA (Spanish); 844-YALLA-US (Arabic); or 888-API-VOTE (Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Korean, Mandarin, Punjabi, Tagalog, Urdu, Vietnamese).

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Background:

VACIR, LWVVA, and ACT filed their response to Virginia's application for a stay on October 29, 2024. Read the brief here. Learn more about the case here.

Former members of Congress also filed an amicus brief against the voter purge, saying, "The daily systematic removal program recently undertaken by Applicants is precisely what the NVRA's Quiet Period Provision forbids. It is not a close case; it is instead a paradigmatic violation of Congress's design."

The lawsuit called on the court to do the following:

• Declare the Purge Program violates the National Voting Rights Act of 1993
• Order Defendants to stop the Purge Program
• Order Defendants to instruct local officials to reinstate to the voter rolls anyone removed through the Purge Program, except those who confirmed they are not a citizen, and ensure they can cast a regular ballot
• Order Defendants to notify affected voters that they remain registered and can cast a regular ballot if they are eligible.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) filed its own lawsuit on October 11, alleging Virginia's Purge Program is systematically removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election, in violation of the National Voter Registration Act.

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