Like many states, Virginia had a need to purge its voter roles to clean them up before Election Day, especially given the number of non-citizens on the lists who are not supposed to be able to vote.

While Gov. Glenn Youngking stood behind a decision by the state's secretary of state to purge the voter roles as the election nears, the issue was immediately challenged and was sent into intense litigation.

According to The Hill, a federal appeals court just ruled that it will let stand a lower court's decision blocking the voter role purge attempts, saying the state is unable to make such a move less than 90 days from an election. 

President Joe Biden's Department of Justice first sued the state after it announced the program for purging the state's voter rolls.

What's going on?

Biden's DOJ sued the state saying the voter roll purge was a violation of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), arguing that it didn't have the authority to enable such a program so close to the election.

The Virginia governor signed off on an executive order allowing "daily" updates to the voter rolls, which included nixing non-citizens.

The Hill noted:

The appeals judges said the appellants have not shown that they are likely to prevail in their appeal from the district court’s preliminary injunction. They said they agree with the district court that the program “most certainly is” problematic.

The appeals court added that the state can take other measures to ensure non-citizens can't vote, including canceling such registrations on an individual basis or the long way around, which would be prosecuting non-citizen voters if they tried to cast a vote.

Adding insult to injury, a federal judge had ordered the state to reinstate 1,600 people on the voter rolls who had been taken off under the state's new program.

Virginia Lt. Governor Winsome Sears says that they found around 6,300 illegals on the voter rolls who identify as illegals.

Imagine how many illegals are on the voter rolls who lie about their immigration status. pic.twitter.com/Bfccg6e5w1

— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) October 20, 2024

Social media reacts

Users across social media reacted to the ongoing situation, with most noting that it's not fair that a state can't remove non-citizens from the voter rolls.

Some even believe that it's a purposeful tactic that helps Democrats.

"The FACT that the DOJ is suing Virginia to keep illegals on the voter roll and the Gov might have to take this to the Supreme Court to stop it, tells you how rigged our elections are! It’s insanity!" one X user wrote.

Another X user wrote, "The same party screaming about a threat to democracy are actually the real threats to democracy."