Supreme Court Overturns Biden-Appointed Judge’s Ruling on VA Voter Rolls

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) dealt a blow to the Democrats’ effort to keep suspected noncitizens on the voter rolls in Virginia as it ruled in favor of the state’s measure to remove the voters in question from the list of registered voters. But will this stop the noncitizens from voting anyways on November 5th in Virginia?

On Friday (October 25), U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles – who was appointed by Joe Biden in 2021 – ordered the restoration of some 1600 noncitizens to the voter rolls after Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) took the state of VA to the court. Governor Glenn Youngkin responded to the legal challenge by stating that the DOJ was wrongly targeting him for upholding the law. His administration instantly took the case to the SCOTUS.

As reported in The New York Times, the SCOTUS ruling overturned that of Judge Giles while the three Democrat justices of the Supreme Court – Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor – disagreed with the other six justices; all three liberal judges said they would have allowed the District court’s ruling to stand. Unexpectedly, leftist news sources sounded hurt by the SCOTUS ruling. CNN called SCOTUS a court divided along partisan lines and siding with Republicans while excluding the fact that the lower court’s ruling was issued by a Biden-appointed judge.

https://twitter.com/EricAbbenante/status/1851671093641187772

The ruling was cheered by conservatives as a victory for election integrity. Governor Youngkin called it a big win for common sense and the Constitution.

Youngkin also reminded that Virginia allows same day registration so eligible voters can still go register and vote. This rule was also mentioned in an Associated Press story on October 31. AP wrote that those removed from the rolls can still vote:

As a practical matter, anyone whose registration was canceled has the option for same-day registration, either on Election Day or during early voting, which ends Saturday. Anyone who registers must attest that they are citizens, but does not have to provide proof of citizenship.

Those who cannot produce proof of citizenship but claim that they are citizens are not turned away. As explained by the Virginia Department of Elections, Virginia allows voters to register at any time including up to and on Election Day. Such voters are allowed to cast a provisional ballot. The official rules specify:

Provisional ballots are not processed by a vote counting machine at the time of voting, but rather are subject to approval by the local electoral board prior to the ballot being counted.