A federal judge in Virginia stopped the state on Friday from removing suspected noncitizens from the voter rolls and ordered the restoration of ones who were removed because of how close it is to the Nov. 5 election.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles ruled an executive order Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed Aug. 7 violated a federal law that prohibits removing names from voter rolls within 90 days of an election. Voters who were removed since that date must be notified and have their registration restored, Giles ruled.
“The ruling is a big victory,” said Ryan Snow, a lawyer with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which represented advocacy groups in the lawsuit, which was combined with a similar suit brought by the Justice Department. “The judge stopped the outrageous mass purge of eligible voters in Virginia.”
Another federal court recently issued a similar ruling blocking a voter removal program in Alabama .
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, vowed to appeal the Friday decision.