Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said earlier this month he had issued a ruling executive order Removal of 6,303 non-citizensaccidentally or intentionally tried to register to vote.
he said in the interview he “didn’t say there was widespread voter fraud,” but said in a previous interview:Call me crazybut I think that the American citizens should decide the American elections.”
The news spread quickly. Past President Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and others praised Youngkin’s order said it prevents “illegals,” “illegal aliens” or “non-citizens” from voting in tweets and retweets.
However, the governor’s Aug. 7 executive order did not say whether any of the 6,303 people removed from voter rolls over the past 18 months were actually non-citizens who voted or were mistaken and later became citizens. His office did not provide that information when asked by NBC News.
But in the months leading up to polling day, Republican rhetoric around “non-citizen voting” is promoting the lie that many undocumented immigrants are voting in US elections, according to voting, civil and immigrant rights groups. Such rhetoric erodes trust in the electoral process, according to the groups.
Local Virginia officials who spoke to NBC News attributed most of the ineligible citizens on voter rolls to mistakes made when people fill out paper or online forms or answer citizenship questions on a touchpad at the department of vehicles. .
The same day Youngkin announced the order, Trump praised it her on the Truth Social post, He said Virginia and its governor have taken strong leadership in “securing” the November election, protecting every “legal vote and keeping illegal aliens allowed into our country to vote.”
Mass voting of people illegally in the country is a conspiracy theory exposed long agobut he is Trump repeated along with other Republicans throughout their campaigns.
“What we’re seeing is a concerted effort at the state, federal level to raise fears about noncitizen voting, and clearly that’s xenophobic rhetoric on immigration in general,” said Alice Clapman, senior voting rights counsel for the progressive Brennan Center for Justice.
On August 9 a retweet of a post by a conservative magazine writer Johnson said of the Virginia executive order that Democrats “are doing very well with noncitizens voting in our elections.” In support of this, the Louisiana Republican pointed to how Democrats voted against the SAVE Act bill, which would have required all Americans to prove their citizenship when registering to vote.
Johnson’s spokesman, Griffin Neal, said the House speaker was “making a point about the 198 House Democrats. who voted against this bill It ensures that only American citizens can decide American elections,” not alleging that any of the 6,303 voted illegally.
Electoral clearance, DMV forms and possible errors
Youngkin’s press secretary, Christian Martinez, told NBC News that the process was “very transparent” and that “everyone who was removed from the voter list has 14 days to come back and demonstrate that they are citizens.”
About two dozen voting, civil and immigrant rights groups called on Youngkin to provide more information about people removed from Virginia’s voter rolls to “ensure that Virginia voters are not unfairly purged from the voter rolls” ahead of the November election. Youngkin’s order also calls on local registrars to notify people of election violations and their penalties, which groups have questioned how to do that without intimidating voters.
“I wonder why they are choosing this now, before the November elections. It seems like they’re pushing this bogus message,” said Jossie Flor Sapunar, spokeswoman for CASA, a national advocacy group for immigrants.
Virginia’s DMV forms ask people if they want to register to vote. Youngkin’s order states that Virginia requires people to provide their full Social Security numbers, DMV credential or proof of identification and legal presence when registering. Spokeswoman Jillian Cowherd said the voter registration process begins at the DMV but is completed at the Virginia Department of Elections.
When Virginia residents who are not US citizens go to the DMV to apply for a license, they must provide proof of identity, including proof of residency. Youngkin’s order requires the daily submission of lists of noncitizens to the Department of Elections.
Virginia’s DMV verifies ID and “lawful presence” with the Social Security Administration, Youngkin’s order said. It also uses the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE system, which is designed to check agency records about immigrants when they apply for certain benefits. It is also used to check voter lists.
But user and data errors in the DHS system — such as confusing people who share the same name — led to people being marked inaccurately on voter rolls, Klapman said. The use of immigrant records under the SAVE system to verify voter rolls has been criticized. the right to vote and immigration defends because it is not flawless.
“If a voter renews their driver’s license or fills out another DMV form, but does not check ‘yes’, check ‘no’ or check no box to the citizenship question, then that voter is marked and listed as an ineligible citizen.” . Tony Castrilli, a spokesman for Fairfax County in northern Virginia, told NBC News in an email.
Fairfax County has disenrolled 985 voters in the county in the past two years, but Castrilli did not know how many later became citizens and re-registered.
Arlington County registrar Gretchen Reinemeyer said incorrect answers can sometimes be the result of people being frustrated by a series of questions they have to answer when they opt out of voter registration.
“What happens when ‘Are you sure?’ you get pop-up windows asking. Often people ask, “What can I do to stop this?” thinking, they start saying “no”, “no”, “no”.
Local officials said they were sending letters to people marked off the voter rolls and giving them 14 days to correct the mistakes if they were mistakenly removed.
Reese Brogdon, Manassas Park’s deputy director of elections, said most of the letters her department sends go unanswered. But Reinemeyer said experienced citizens were mistakenly mentioned. None of the local officials knew how many people had to return to correct the mistakes.
“In my experience working with voters, they know if they are citizens and they know if they should vote,” Reinemeyer said.
Virginia has same-day registration, so people who are citizens mistakenly removed from voter rolls can verify their citizenship and vote, he said.
According to the Brennan Center’s Clapman, it’s rare for noncitizens to vote because it risks jail, fines and even deportation. He has repeatedly shown that non-citizen voting is not a problem.
According to him, Youngkin’s announcement of non-citizen voters “affects the denial of elections in general and undermines confidence in the election results. It creates a push for legislation that would make it harder to vote,” Klapman said.
History of errors
Virginia has a history of voter registration errors. Last October, election officials under Youngkin were removed from office approximately 3,400 legal Virginia voters from the rolls, after misclassifying probation violators as criminals. In Virginia, felons are automatically disqualified from voting.
Richmond was settled by the League of United Latin American Citizens Defamation lawsuit in 2018 he filed a complaint against a group run by J. Christian Adams, Trump’s former vote fraud commissioner, for publishing the identities of noncitizens who were removed from the state’s voter rolls. Group he should have apologized and make it clear that the people they are targeting are US citizens.
“The integrity of our election system depends on protecting the right and freedom of every Virginian to vote,” voter, civil and immigrant rights groups said in a recent letter to Youngkin.
The groups said it was important that any election security measures did not prevent voters from “making their voices heard” or “intimidate or discourage voters from participating or instill distrust in our democratic processes.”