(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and 24 other state attorneys general are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to permit Virginia’s removal of roughly 1,600 self-identified noncitizens from voter rolls.
Virginia is seeking intervention from the Supreme Court following a U.S. District Court ruling on Oct. 25 that ordered state election officials to restore the voter registrations of noncitizens who had been removed from voter rolls since Aug. 7. The ruling sided with opponents who asserted that states cannot legally cancel voter registrations within 90 days of a federal election.
“The District Court has spawned mass confusion on the eve of an election by issuing a major ruling that gets the law wrong,” Yost said. “States have a right to protect the integrity of their elections by enforcing their voting laws.”
In an amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, Yost and his counterparts say the ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia undermines the constitutional authority of states to determine voter qualifications and to maintain election integrity by allowing only eligible citizens to vote.
The brief argues that the District Court’s ruling is based on a flawed interpretation of the National Voter Registration Act’s 90-day “quiet period” provision. The quiet period, the brief says, does not apply to the removal of noncitizens from voter rolls.
“Noncitizens are not eligible voters,” the brief reads. “They were not eligible voters before Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act, they were not eligible when Congress passed the NVRA, and they are not eligible today.”
Joining Yost in the amicus brief are the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
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