We are only days away from the election. But everything is being turned on its head.
Because an emergency Supreme Court case has a massive implication for the 2024 election.
Americans are sick and tired of election laws not being hashed out before the elections actually take place.
The 2020 election was a mess. Anyone who denies that is lying.
Whether it was concerns over who was on the voter roll or whether ballots that were postdated in the mail should be counted, the entire country was confused.
Well, we may be experiencing the exact same thing.
In a high-stakes showdown just days before the 2024 presidential election, Virginia has filed an urgent appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower court’s ruling that stopped the state from removing suspected noncitizens from its voter rolls and ordered the reinstatement of roughly 1,600 voters.
This appeal follows the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to uphold a preliminary injunction from U.S. Judge Patricia Giles, which forced Virginia to suspend its voter-roll removals and restore all removed voters within the past 90 days.
The appellate court’s decision cited the state’s process as “systematic,” not individualized, deeming it in violation of federal law — a significant setback for Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Virginia Republicans.
At the center of this pivotal case is the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) provision, which mandates that states cease systematic voter list maintenance for a 90-day “quiet period” before federal elections.
The Justice Department filed suit earlier this month, arguing that Virginia’s removal of potential noncitizens so close to the November 5 election breached this quiet period.
DOJ officials also raised concerns that some eligible voters may have been mistakenly removed without adequate notification or time to resolve the error.
In Virginia’s Supreme Court appeal, Attorney General Jason S. Miyares challenged this interpretation, arguing that the NVRA’s “quiet period” should not apply to noncitizens, which could undermine the lawsuit’s primary argument.
Miyares also contended that Virginia’s removals were based on an “individualized process” using Department of Motor Vehicles data to identify potential noncitizens among registered voters.
The state notified these individuals of the impending removal, providing a 14-day window to verify citizenship.
Gov. Youngkin, pointing to a 2006 state law signed by then-Gov. Tim Kaine, argued the process was lawful and backed by precedent.
“Let’s be clear about what just happened: only eleven days before a Presidential election, a federal judge ordered Virginia to reinstate over 1,500 individuals–who self-identified themselves as noncitizens–back onto the voter rolls,” he said in a statement Friday.
With Virginia’s voter rolls now back under national scrutiny and a Supreme Court decision imminent, this legal battle could resonate powerfully in the final days leading up to Election Day, spotlighting the high-stakes tensions around election integrity and voter access in this tightly contested election year.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
