Oct. 30 (UPI) — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that Virginia can continue with its purge of more than 1,600 voter registrations that state officials say are held by noncitizens ahead of next week’s general election.
The court, in a 6-3 ruling, reversed a lower court’s decision to halt the registration removal because it was so close to the election. The court’s three liberal justices — Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor — dissented from the decision.
Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin praised the Supreme Court decision, calling it “a victory for common sense and election fairness.”
The emergency Supreme Court decision was a victory for conservatives in Virginia and possibly other states, who have made the late voter purges a common election tactic which often gave little, if any, time for those targeted to protest and correct if a mistake was made.
The Biden administration and purge opponents had won at the district court and federal appeals court levels before the Supreme Court reversed the injunction on Wednesday, allowing the purge to move forward.
The Justice Department and other challengers said the purge was against federal law because it actually stripped eligible voters of their ability to vote despite the state saying it was only targeting noncitizens. Opponents said those purged never knew they were taken off the rolls.
