Judge orders Virginia to keep non-citizens on voting rolls

Judge Giles

U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles 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.

Judge Giles, a 2021 Biden appointee to the federal bench granted an injunction request brought against Virginia election officials by the Biden 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.

Those whose registration was reinstated had previously self-identified as non-citizens. Under current Virginia law they were given notice and an opportunity to appeal the decision to remove them, or to vote by using a challenged ballot. The law had been passed and signed into law by former Governor and now Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat.