The Justice Division sued Virginia and Alabama, accusing the states of violating federal legislation by not too long ago flagging 1000’s of voters as noncitizens or potential noncitizens, placing them liable to removing from voter rolls.
Former President Donald Trump pointed to the Virginia lawsuit filed weeks earlier than Election Day as proof the federal company is being weaponized so Democrats can permit noncitizens to solid ballots within the federal election.
“One of many Best Examples of DOJ Weaponization is the truth that they’re suing Virginia to place ALL of the Unlawful Voters, which had been absolutely uncovered and eliminated by the necessary work of Governor Glenn Youngkin, again on the Voter Rolls,” Trump wrote Oct. 14 on Truth Social. “Clearly, this was finished in order that they will CHEAT on the Election. So unhappy! What has occurred to our as soon as Nice Nation?”
Trump repeated the declare Oct. 15 in an interview with the Economic Club of Chicago.
“Virginia cleaned up its voter rolls and removed 1000’s and 1000’s of unhealthy votes and the Justice Division sued them, that they need to be allowed to place these unhealthy votes and unlawful votes again in and let the individuals vote.”
Social media posts by Trump supporters even have echoed the declare.
However that’s not what the lawsuits present. PolitiFact got down to reply voters’ questions concerning the goal of the Justice Division’s lawsuits.
The Justice Division’s lawsuit filings say the states violated long-standing federal legislation that forestalls eligible voters from being faraway from the voting rolls inside 90 days of a federal election.
We requested Trump’s marketing campaign for proof that the Justice Division’s Virginia lawsuit is an effort to permit dishonest. Marketing campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt mentioned Democrats have allowed noncitizen voting in some locations such because the District of Columbia.
“Democrats are pushing for non-citizens to vote and affect the way forward for our nation,” Leavitt mentioned in a press release.
We’ve debunked claims that noncitizens in Washington, D.C., can vote in federal elections.
Noncitizens typically land on voter rolls, usually by chance when getting driver’s licenses. Nevertheless, voting by noncitizens is uncommon. The largest case we found was in 2020 in North Carolina, when federal prosecutors charged 19 people with voter fraud after they solid ballots, largely within the 2016 election. For context, greater than 4.5 million individuals in North Carolina voted within the 2016 presidential election.
A 1996 federal legislation prevents noncitizen voting in federal elections; the Justice Division has not proposed altering it.
Rebecca Inexperienced, a William & Mary Legislation Faculty election legislation professor, mentioned three mechanisms be sure that noncitizens can’t solid ballots on Election Day.
- Federal and state legal guidelines prohibit noncitizens from voting, with prison penalties.
- States use information from quite a few sources between elections to make sure the accuracy of voter rolls.
- Most states have a course of that lets individuals problem voters they consider are ineligible.
The Justice Division filed the lawsuits in federal court docket in opposition to Alabama on Sept. 27 and Virginia on Oct. 11. Voting rights teams filed similar lawsuits.
Each lawsuits say it’s not in dispute that solely U.S. residents are eligible to vote in U.S. federal elections, “and there’s no proof of widespread noncitizen voting in the USA.”
The lawsuits tackle a piece of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act often known as the “quiet interval provision.” That requirement says states should full systematic packages to take away ineligible voters’ names from registration lists no later than 90 days earlier than federal elections. The legislation goals to stop having individuals who had been errantly faraway from voter rolls from operating out of time to rectify it earlier than Election Day.
Election officers usually begin packages to replace voter rolls and do mass removals in odd-numbered years. This fashion, if persons are wrongly eliminated, they’ve sufficient time to register earlier than the subsequent federal election.
Some removals can nonetheless happen throughout the 90-day window, corresponding to of voters who died or who ask to be eliminated.
“For over 30 years, it has been one of many few black-and-white federal election guidelines that eradicating massive numbers of voter information near an election is prohibited,” mentioned David Becker, govt director of the Middle for Election Innovation & Analysis, a nonprofit group aiming to construct public confidence in elections.
“High quality voter listing upkeep, together with eradicating previous out-of-date voter information, is necessary for election integrity, and required by federal legislation,” Becker mentioned. “However each state is aware of this should be finished nicely upfront of an election, not a couple of weeks earlier than the place errors might result in disenfranchising voters.”
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, each Republicans, defended their actions as implementing current legal guidelines.
Allen said Aug. 13 that his workplace recognized 3,251 individuals registered to vote who obtained noncitizen identification numbers from the federal Division of Homeland Safety.
Allen didn’t say what number of of these individuals voted, and mentioned some individuals on the listing could have since develop into naturalized residents.
Allen advised county officers to offer the names an inactive standing, which put the individuals on a path to removing until they supplied figuring out data. Greater than 700 individuals have since reregistered, in line with the lawsuit.
Barry Stephenson, chairperson of Jefferson County, Alabama’s Board of Registrars, told PolitiFact in August that some individuals who obtained a removing discover referred to as the workplace and mentioned that they had everlasting residency and didn’t know they had been registered to vote. He advised PolitiFact in mid-October he had eliminated 5 such voters from voter rolls. The others had their statuses modified from energetic to inactive; in the event that they arrive on the polls and full a voter replace type testifying that they’re U.S. residents, they will obtain common ballots.
Youngkin mentioned in an Aug. 7 executive order that the state eliminated 6,303 noncitizens from voter rolls from January 2022 to July 2024.
Virginia used state Division of Motor Automobiles information and federal Homeland Safety information to determine noncitizens. Youngkin’s order mentioned the individuals may need “purposefully or unintentionally registered to vote.”
The flagged individuals had been advised their voter registrations could be canceled until they accomplished an affirmation of citizenship type inside 14 days. Virginia is one of some states that makes use of a federal database to test immigration or citizenship standing for voter registration functions.
A Youngkin counselor said the state’s course of for figuring out noncitizen voters begins with individuals declaring they’re noncitizens throughout DMV transactions.
State citizenship information aren’t all the time correct or updated. Prince William County, Virginia, Registrar Eric Olsen discovered earlier this yr that 162 voters had their registration canceled as a result of they had been listed as noncitizens. Of that group, 43 voted, in line with a Could e-mail Olsen despatched to county officers and supplied to PolitiFact.
Nevertheless, Olsen said at a Sept. 30 meeting, “Each single one among them had verified their citizenship beforehand, some by as many as 5 occasions and so they all had Social Safety numbers.”
Youngkin’s govt order didn’t say how many individuals on the listing of 6,303 had solid ballots, however The Washington Post wrote that “a assessment of state court docket information and interviews with elections officers discovered no proof that any noncitizens have tried to vote throughout his time period in Virginia.”
Texas officers said in August that the state had eliminated greater than 6,500 potential noncitizens however journalists concluded that these numbers seem inflated. The Justice Division didn’t remark about whether or not it could sue Texas.
Florida and Texas years in the past flagged tens of 1000’s voters that state officers mentioned had been noncitizens after which needed to recant a lot of it. One was a Brooklyn, New York-born World War II veteran.
PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this text.
This reality test was initially published by PolitiFact, which is a part of the Poynter Institute. See the sources for this reality test here.
