A federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia has entered an order requiring the Commonwealth of Virginia to cease a program to remove voters from Virginia’s voting rolls between now and the Nov. 5 general election. The court further ordered the Commonwealth to issue guidance to all Virginia general registrars to immediately restore voters whose registrations were canceled because of the program unless those voters requested removal or are subject to removal for other reasons.
The department filed a lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Virginia, its State Board of Elections and its Commissioner of Elections on Oct. 11 alleging that the Commonwealth’s voter list maintenance program, as announced by Virginia’s Governor on Aug. 7, violated Section 8(c)(2) of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) by conducting a program intending to systematically remove ineligible voters within 90 days of a federal election. The court’s order requires the Commonwealth of Virginia to send a remedial mailing to each registrant canceled as part of the voter removal process who has not submitted a request to be removed from the voter rolls and alert these voters that they have been returned to the voter rolls.
The injunction also requires the Commonwealth to ensure that affected voters are notified that their inclusion in the Commonwealth’s wayward removal program does not establish their ineligibility to vote or subject them to criminal prosecution for registering to vote or for voting. The remedial mailing ordered by the court must advise all registrants canceled as part of the voter removal process that if they are a U.S. citizen and otherwise meet voter qualifications, they have the right to vote.