Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin has vowed to work to ensure the state's presidential election is fair, secure and accurate following a lawsuit by the Virginia General Assembly. Ministry of Justice (Ministry of Justice) Regarding his efforts to exclude non-citizens from the voter rolls.
The Justice Department is suing Virginia for removing noncitizens from its voting rolls, and Yonkin vowed to fight it during an appearance on Fox News' “Hannity” Monday night.
“The Department of Justice is suing the state of Virginia because anyone who identifies as a non-citizen will be removed from the voter rolls unless they prove and assert that they are a citizen,” Youngkin said.
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Glenn Youngkin (Fox News)
In the lawsuit, the Justice Department says Youngkin requires election officials to regularly update the state's voter list to remove individuals who have been “identified as noncitizens” but have not responded to requests. It alleges that he violated the National Voter Registration Act, which established the executive order. Citizenship must be confirmed within 14 days.
Virginia announced it had evicted more than 6,000 people from January 2022 to July 2024.
In a memo obtained by Fox News Digital, the governor's office called the Justice Department's move “to properly enforce a Virginia law signed by then-Governor Tim Kaine in 2006 requiring Virginia to exclude non-citizens.” He called it an “unprecedented lawsuit” targeting the state. From the voter rolls – This process begins when an individual identifies themselves as a non-citizen during a DMV transaction. ”
“This bill, signed in 2006, requires people to use DMV data to identify themselves as noncitizens and go through a process to remove them from the voter rolls if they are on the voter rolls. And guess what? That's exactly what we've been doing and have been for 18 years,'' Youngkin said. “Democratic governors, including Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam, used this process all the way back to October, and that's exactly what we're doing in Virginia today.”
He will notify the registrar if an individual walks into the DMV, identifies themselves as a non-citizen, but is accidentally or intentionally registered to vote and ends up on the voter rolls. I explained that I needed to go through a process. If your citizenship cannot be verified within 14 days, you will be removed from the voter rolls.
“This is an incredible process for the Department of Justice to turn around 25 days before the presidential election and say, 'This has to stop,'” Younkin said.
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Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a press conference at the Department of Justice on Tuesday, September 24, 2024 in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
“To me, this is unprecedented and I think it's representative of the Department of Justice trying to accomplish something other than a fair and free election,” he added.
Youngkin said Virginia will remove 80,000 dead people from the voter rolls in 2023, and since he took office, someone has entered the DMV and been listed on the voter rolls claiming to be a non-citizen. He said there were 6,300 cases.
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FOX News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
