Justice Division Suing Virginia for Eradicating Noncitizens from Voter Rolls?

On Oct. 14, 2024, former U.S. President Donald Trump posted to his social media platform, Truth Social, alleging that the Justice Division had introduced a lawsuit towards the commonwealth of Virginia to dam the state from eradicating “unlawful voters” from the voter rolls. The declare was additionally shared by a few of Trump’s political allies, together with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton.

Snopes discovered that the declare was primarily based on some reality, however that it was deceptive and wanted context, so we rated it a combination of reality and falsehood. 

It’s true that Youngkin signed an govt order that included a provision particularly requesting the state to audit its voter rolls for potential noncitizen voters. It is also true that the Division of Justice sued Virginia due to this govt order. Nonetheless, it isn’t true that the lawsuit was introduced to dam Virginia from eradicating suspected noncitizens from its voting rolls. 

The declare’s phrasing implies that noncitizen voting is a typical downside that may have gone unchecked with out the order. It isn’t. Snopes has printed a detailed investigation into Trump’s claims of noncitizen voting and located that it’s an virtually nonexistent downside. Moreover, Snopes discovered that the majority circumstances of noncitizens making an attempt to register to vote are found within the registration course of, earlier than a voter’s title even makes it onto a voter roll.

The actual purpose the Division of Justice sued Virginia is as a result of, beneath Part 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, all applications which “systematically take away the names of ineligible voters from the record of ineligible voters” should be accomplished 90 days earlier than a federal election. The regulation is written this fashion as a option to forestall last-minute purges of voter rolls that would result in in any other case eligible voters being barred from casting a poll. It additionally allows exceptions if a voter asks to be eliminated, if a voter dies, if the voter is discovered responsible of against the law and would not be eligible to vote or if the voter is discovered to be mentally incapable. 

Youngkin’s executive order calling for the audit was signed precisely 90 days earlier than the 2024 presidential election, which means that election officers wouldn’t have had time to evaluate their databases earlier than the deadline. The Justice Division additionally introduced a similar lawsuit against Alabama. 

Sources