Democrats representing Virginia in the House and Senate are requesting that the federal Department of Justice investigate recent actions by the current state leadership in their home area after reports revealed thousands of Virginians were improperly removed from the rolls, meaning Virginia’s voter registration records.
The Democrats, including both the state’s Senators and a slew of House members, also pointed to other major problems in the handling of administrative elements to the state’s system of elections that have threatened the ability of ordinary Virginians to cast their ballots. The Democrats suggest some of the recent actions by state leadership in Virginia could be in violation of federal protections for voting in the Voting Rights Act.
As of a recent update on the situation with those thousands of incorrectly removed Virginia voters, most had seen their registration status updated to accurately reflect their eligibility to vote — but early voting already started. “The Department has indicated those affected voters’ records have been sent – and updated – to the local registrars who have then notified these voters via mail; however, it is not clear that these voters will receive the information they are reinstated in a timely manner,” the Democrats said. And the share whose records had been fixed by that point wasn’t the entirety of those originally affected.
Last year, there were also problems in Virginia including what the Democrats say was authorities failing “to pass along an additional 149,000 voting records,” meaning individual Virginians trying to cast ballots in their local jurisdictions didn’t have their records appropriately updated, and some were at least initially rebuffed at polling places.
“We reiterate our request that DOJ take immediate action to investigate how these removals happened and what is being done to ensure that those whose names were illegally removed from the voting rolls are informed in a timely and effective manner so that they are able to cast a vote in the November 7, 2023, Virginia election,” the Democrats said Monday.
Virginia is currently led by GOP Governor Glenn Youngkin. Youngkin has been discussed as a potential GOP presidential contender, but there has been no sign of imminent success for him on that front if he decided to announce such a campaign.
