Dozens of people in Charlottesville have been removed from voter rolls in Virginia

Youngkin’s executive order, which calls for daily sweeps of voter rolls before elections, has drawn legal challenges from the U.S. Department of Justice, the League of Women Voters and the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights. Youngkin argued that those seized are not legal citizens as determined by the Department of Motor Vehicles. His opponents argued that his order violated the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which requires the systematic removal of voters at least 90 days before a federal election.

Lower courts that had sided with the Justice Department and its allies were overturned Wednesday when conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court voted to uphold Youngkin’s order.

As a result, 16 people were removed from the voter rolls in Albemarle County, 11 in the city of Charlottesville and seven in the surrounding counties of Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Orange. None of those constituents responded to inquiries from the Daily Progress.

The numbers in the Charlottesville area pale in comparison to those recorded in Northern Virginia. In Fairfax County alone, 293 people were removed from the voter rolls.

Still, in a state where more than 4 million people voted in 2020, 1,600 people are unlikely to make much of an impact on Election Day. Meanwhile, several people have already come forward, claiming their names have been removed from voter rolls even though they are legal citizens of the United States.

Those people will still be able to vote, election officials said.

That’s because in 2022, the state began allowing voter registration on one day.

A certified voter—or any other U.S. citizen—can register at their polling place on Election Day. They will need to provide identification, such as a driver’s license, and then be able to vote using an advance ballot.

Advance ballots are not processed by the vote counting machine. Instead, they must first be approved by the local election commission, a three-person body that is supposed to help run elections. The decision is made after checking the evidence collected by the registry office regarding the presence of a voter. The voter has the right to be at the meeting where such a decision is made, but attendance is not mandatory. Early voting voters will be notified by their Chief Registrar if their ballot is not counted.

Voter fraud in Virginia — which remains extremely rare — is a Class 6 felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Bruce Curtley, the county’s Democratic chairman, doesn’t expect it to have any impact, with only 16 purged voters in Albemarle County. According to him, this is a relatively small number of voters. He also noted that voter registration in Virginia is not done by party; it is unclear how many of the victims are Republicans or Democrats.

Kirtley theorizes that Youngkin, a Republican, hopes to sow the seeds of doubt about the integrity of the election; Donald Trump continues to falsely claim that the 2020 election was rigged against him and has already stated without evidence that the Democrats are cheating this time. Although Youngkin distanced himself when he ran for governor, he has since embraced the former president and current Republican presidential candidate.

“This just seems like another attempt to suppress votes, and we think Youngkin is just trying to appeal to Trump,” Kirtley said. “They try to justify the existence of problems. I don’t think it would be enough in Virginia, but you can imagine it would have an effect in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and similar states.

In a statement Wednesday, Yunkin called the Supreme Court’s decision a victory. According to him, clean voter lists are part of a comprehensive approach to ensuring fair elections.

“Virginians also know that we have paper ballots, offline voting machines, a secure storage process, signature verification, monitored and secure drop boxes, and a ‘triple-check’ vote counting process to tally results,” Youngkin said. . “Virginians can vote on Election Day knowing that Virginia elections are fair, secure and free from politically motivated interference.”

Democrats Kirtley spoke with aren’t particularly angry about the purge. If it had affected a larger group of people, and if legitimate voters had been kept out of the polls, he suspects voters would have been more upset.

“We’re all about voter integrity, but we’re also about giving people the opportunity to vote,” Kirtley said. “One person one vote, how basic can you get?”

Kirtley said Democrats in the region are incredibly motivated this election cycle.

“People get fired up, and they get fired up over little things like, ‘Someone stole my yard sign,'” Kirtley said.

Albemarle County Registrar General Lauren Eddy told The Daily Progress that only one person contacted her office saying she was among the voters who were kicked out.

“We had a person who said they had a letter from the governor (that she was removed), but she didn’t have the letter with her,” Eddy said. “There is some gray area as to how these voters were contacted and who contacted them.”

But there is no gray area in the enthusiasm of voters. By Saturday, the last day of early in-person voting, she expects early voting numbers to exceed the numbers Albemarle County recorded in 2020.

“We serve over 1,000 people every day,” she said. “Business is booming.”