AG Reyes Applauds SCOTUS Decision on Non-Eligible Voters in Virginia

SALT LAKE CITY-Attorney General Sean D. Reyes joined attorneys general from 25 other states in filing an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to allow Virginia to remove non-citizens from its voter roll. Today, the Supreme Court made the decision on its emergency docket that Virginia does not have to restore the registrations of 1,600 voters before next week's election.

"We applaud the Supreme Court decision to reinforce the power of states to properly regulate elections and keep them fair and free of fraud or foreign influence. Every one of the registered voters in Virginia who were removed from the voting list indicated they were not citizens on their DMV records within the previous year. Before removing those individuals, several steps were taken to verify each person was not an eligible voter," said Attorney General Sean D. Reyes.

The multi-state AG brief argued that a preliminary injunction that halted the state of Virginia from removing self-identified non-citizens from its rolls undermines a states' authority to determine voter qualifications. Virginia's law provides mechanisms to protect election integrity, while ensuring only U.S. citizens remain on voter rolls.

"The upcoming election is hotly contested and has caused division around the country. Perhaps the division would be lower if the federal government were not interfering with the election via last-minute attacks on state efforts to police voter qualifications," the amicus brief reads.

The Eastern District of Virginia Court's previous decision to temporarily stop Virginia from removing non-citizens from its rolls would have resulted in Congress forcing a state to allow non-citizens to vote in an election over the objection of that state.

Kansas is the state that led the amicus brief. According to Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, "It has always been against the law for non-citizens to vote. Every vote cast by a non-citizen effectively cancels out the vote of a U.S. citizen. It is unconscionable that Democrats and activist judges are fighting to keep them on the rolls."

"Non-citizens are not eligible voters. They were not eligible voters before Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act, they were not eligible when Congress passed the NVRA, and they are not eligible today," the amicus reads.

In addition to Utah and Kansas, attorneys general from 24 other states joined the brief. They include attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Read the amicus brief here.