Every Republican gleeful about the Supreme Court’s shadow docket ruling reinstating Governor Youngkin’s eleventh-hour voter purge should take a good look in the mirror and ask themselves why they are celebrating and who they are really fighting for – because it isn’t Virginians. To be clear, the Commonwealth did not “win” today. Our democracy did not “win” today. There can be no win when the only thing we actually know with certainty is that eligible Virginia voters have been removed from the rolls and stripped of their normal right to participate.
While the Supreme Court provided no explanation for its ruling, thanks to the Department of Justice lawsuit and the court order directing the Youngkin administration to turn over the names of those removed, we do know the following facts:
✅Fact: Attorney General Jason Miyares set up a 20-person so-called Election Integrity Unit in 2022 that has never charged a single case of non-citizen voting.
✅Fact: In the process of executing its purge, the Youngkin Administration did strip numerous eligible voters from the rolls.
✅Fact: At least one of the Virginians wrongfully disenfranchised is a lifelong citizen who resides in Henrico County, where I serve as Commonwealth’s Attorney.
✅Fact: Election officials have told The Washington Post that most of the 6,303 names purged from Virginia’s voter rolls during Youngkin’s term resulted from paperwork errors at the DMV.
✅Fact: Every one of these eligible Virginia voters now gets to cast only a provisional ballot. Provisional ballots are treated separately from regular ballots and are not counted until after Election Day.
Governor Youngkin and Jason Miyares have made clear they care more about phantom non-citizens voting than they do about the real Virginians whose constitutional rights have been stripped. Neither has expressed an ounce of remorse that actual Virginia voters have been deprived of their right to vote – shameful conduct from two of the highest elected officials of the Commonwealth. Virginia’s eligible voters are not some collateral damage to be offered up to score points with MAGA extremists set on disrupting our free and fair elections.
To be clear, this fight is not over. Over the next 6 days, I will do everything in my power to ensure that every Virginia voter whose rights have been wrongly stripped by this purge is educated about how to cast a provisional ballot and ensure that it is counted. Similarly, I will work to ensure that every registrar’s office is prepared for the increase in provisional ballots and up to speed on the procedures for processing them expeditiously. Beyond Election Day 2024, I will support the DOJ litigation that will continue at the district court level however I can. And while eyes are rightly focused on next week’s elections, this whole situation further proves why we must retake the statewide seats in Virginia’s 2025 elections and why I am determined to restore the rule of law as the next Attorney General.
