After leaving bipartisan voting information group, Virginia announces new data-sharing agreements

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Months after withdrawing from a data-sharing interstate compact to fight voter fraud, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration on Wednesday announced a series of recent steps it has taken to improve the accuracy of the state’s voter rolls.

Among them is the launch of new, individual data-sharing agreements with five other states and Washington, D.C., the Virginia Department of Elections said in a news release. The six agreements will enable Virginia to “securely compare voter lists” with Washington, Georgia, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia and “identify potential voter fraud” and duplicate registrations, the Department of Elections said in a news release.

“Secure elections start with accurate voter lists,” Elections Commissioner Susan Beals said Wednesday, two days before the start of early voting in this year’s legislative elections. “Virginia now updates our voter list using data coming directly from one-to-one data sharing agreements with neighboring states and partnerships with state and federal agencies.”