Appeals Court Says Virginia Can’t Remove Suspected Noncitizen Voters

Virginia cannot systematically remove voters they suspect to be noncitizens because the removal likely violates federal law with the upcoming election approaching, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Oct. 27.
The National Voter Registration Act contains a provision that requires states to halt “any program the purpose of which is to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters” within 90 days of a federal election. Virginia officials argued that the provision does not cover noncitizens because they are never “voters.”
The proposed interpretation would create problems such as giving different words—“voters” and “registrant”—in the law the same meaning, the court said.
The unanimous ruling was made by U.S. Circuit Judges Toby J. Heytens, Albert Diaz, and Stephanie D. Thacker. The panel was assigned the case.
Groups that sued over the removal had not commented on the ruling as of the morning of Oct. 28.
The order does not prevent Virginia from attempting to remove individuals through individualized investigations into whether they are noncitizens.
“The district court based this drastic injunction on a provision of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) that does not even apply to the removal of noncitizens and other void ab initio registrations. And even if it did apply to the removal of noncitizens, Virginia’s program complied with it anyway,” the officials said.
“If unremedied, the Defendants’ conduct will cause eligible U.S. citizen voters and the United States irreparable harm; plaintiffs acted promptly within the Quiet Period to discern the nature of the violation and remedy it; and the district court’s narrow injunction as to the impacted voters is a feasible and needed to ensure a remedy,” the lawyers said.