The Justice Department announced Friday it is suing Virginia over its efforts to purge voter rolls within 90 days of the election, calling the state’s actions a violation of federal voting laws.
The lawsuit comes about two months after Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order requiring the state’s Department of Elections to make daily updates to the voting rolls, including cross-checking the list with identified “non-citizens.” with the state’s existing list of registered voters.
Local officials are required to notify people on both lists that their voter registration will be canceled if they do not respond to the notice and confirm their citizenship within 14 days. It is illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections.
According to the Justice Department, some of the people identified as non-citizens have U.S. citizenship, causing some voter registrations to be unnecessarily canceled.
“The Commonwealth’s unlawful actions here have likely confused, deterred, and removed U.S. citizens who are fully eligible to vote – the very scenario Congress sought to prevent when it issued the Quiet Period Provision,” the DOJ said in its lawsuit, referring to the purging of voter rolls within 90 days of Election Day.
During an earlier effort to purge voter rolls of noncitizens in Virginia’s Prince William County, which took place before July, 43 of the 162 people identified as noncitizens were U.S. citizens, according to the Justice Department’s lawsuit.
In a statement, Youngkin called the lawsuit “politically motivated” and a “desperate attempt” to attack the legitimacy of the election.
“Virginians – and Americans – will see this for exactly what it is: a desperate attempt to attack the legitimacy of elections in the Commonwealth, the crucible of American democracy,” said Youngkin, an ally of former President Donald Trump .
Trump weighed in on the lawsuit on Friday, praising Youngkin and claiming the Justice Department and Vice President Kamala Harris were trying to undermine democracy.
“We must protect American voters and protect American democracy!” Trump said this in a message to Truth Social.
The Virginia Department of Elections, which is named in the lawsuit, declined to comment, saying it does not comment on pending litigation.
The state’s election commissioner, also named, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday evening.
This is the second DOJ lawsuit in the past month against a state for alleged violations of a provision of the National Voter Registration Act that states that while states have the prerogative to purge their voter rolls for various reasons, they are not so quick to make systematic purges can extend to federal elections, because those most affected are often naturalized Americans.
The DOJ sued the state of Alabama in September for alleged violations of the so-called Quiet Provision.
Virginia has voted Democratic in every presidential election since 2004. Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, recently visited the state to survey the damage from Hurricane Helene with Youngkin.
In the state’s Senate race, Sen. Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s running mate in the 2016 presidential election, faces a challenge from Republican candidate Hung Cao in a state that is a solidly Democratic race according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
The Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights filed its own lawsuit against Youngkin on Monday, claiming the voter purge process was illegal, discriminatory and riddled with errors.
Monica Sarmiento, the organization’s executive director, praised the DOJ lawsuit in a statement Friday, saying the executive order signed by Youngkin had disenfranchised “hundreds, if not thousands” of eligible voters on the eve of the election.
“The Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights applauds the Department of Justice for joining us in challenging Virginia’s unlawful citizenship purge program,” Sarmiento said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
