The U.S. Supreme Court issued an order on Wednesday that will allow Virginia to remove more than 1,600 people from its voter rolls, giving Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin a win just days out from the election.
Youngkin’s program seeks to remove names suspected of being ineligible to vote due to their citizenship status. Illegal noncitizen voting rarely happens in U.S. elections, but Republicans have made it a central issue in their campaigning. Voting rights advocates were quick to push back, citing voter disenfranchisement and arguing that citizens who are eligible to vote were included in the purge.
The case moved quickly up to the Supreme Court, after lower courts ruled the voter purges violated a provision of the National Voter Registration Act that prohibits changes to voter rolls within 90 days of an election — the Youngkin administration issued its order on Aug. 7, exactly 90 days out from Election Day.
The Supreme Court’s temporary order comes weeks after early voting began in Virginia.
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“Clean voter rolls are one important part of a comprehensive approach we are taking to ensure the fairness of our elections,” Youngkin said in a statement. “Virginians can cast their ballots on Election Day knowing that Virginia’s elections are fair, secure, and free from politically-motivated interference.”
The Supreme Court’s emergency order had no vote count or rationale, but the court noted that liberal Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson “would deny the application.”
NPR reported that citizens who are eligible to vote were kicked off of the voter rolls because of Youngkin’s program.
Democrats on Wednesday immediately pushed back on the Supreme Court’s order. “Another outrageous decision from this rogue Supreme Court,” said Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly in a post on X. “Governor Youngkin’s voter purges are explicitly against federal law and have disenfranchised lawfully voting citizens mere days before an election. This sets a dark and deeply troubling precedent.”
Virginia is a blue state that has voted Democratic in the last four presidential elections. Still, former President Donald Trump will visit Virginia the weekend before Election Day. The state also has a high-profile Senate race: Sen. Tim Kaine, the Democratic incumbent, is running for reelection against Republican candidate Hung Cao, who has aligned himself with Trump and Youngkin.
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Amelia Benavides-Colón is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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