Federal judge orders Virginia to restore 1,600 voter registrations purged ahead of the election

A federal judge on Friday ordered Virginia to restore more than 1,600 voter registrations that she said were illegally purged in the last two months in an effort to stop noncitizens from voting.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles granted an injunction request brought against Virginia election officials by the Justice Department, which claimed the voter registrations were wrongly canceled during a 90-day quiet period ahead of the November election that restricts states from making large-scale changes to their voter rolls.

State officials said they will appeal to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In issuing her ruling Friday, Giles bristled at the suggestion she was restoring the voting rights of noncitizens. She said the state lacked proof that the purged voters were noncitizens but went ahead and canceled their registrations anyway in violation of federal law.

“I’m not dealing with beliefs,” she told a lawyer for Virginia when he again referred to those stricken from the rolls as noncitizens. “I’m dealing with evidence.”

Governor Youngkin responded to the ruling stating “Let’s be clear about what just happened: only eleven days before a Presidential election, a federal judge ordered Virginia to re-instate over 1,500 individuals-who self-identified themselves as noncitizens-back onto voter rolls.”

While the court’s order limits the removal of voters, it clarified that Virginia can continue to investigate and cancel registrations for non-citizens or other ineligible individuals, provided these reviews are conducted on an individual basis.