On October 7, 2024, Protect Democracy — with plaintiffs the League of Women Voters and the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights, and co-counsel the Campaign Legal Center, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and  the Advancement Project — sued the state of Virginia. The lawsuit was filed in response to Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s Executive Order 35, which created a voter purge program of alleged noncitizens. The order requires state and local election officials to remove individuals from the state voter registration list if Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) records do not indicate U.S. citizenship.

This violates federal law — the National Voter Registration Act — in three ways:

• They’re removing voters well beyond the 90-day cutoff before federal elections for systematic changes to the voter rolls. 
• They’re disproportionately — and discriminatorily — targeting naturalized citizens for removal. 
• They’re requiring voters to provide burdensome additional proof of U.S. citizenship beyond what’s required by federal law. 

What’s more, as the complaint explains, Virginia drivers’ licenses are available to non-citizens and can remain valid for up to eight years, meaning people who obtained driver’s licenses as non-citizens, subsequently became U.S. citizens, and lawfully registered to vote are being unlawfully purged from the voter rolls based on outdated DMV information. Additionally, the DMV does not require lawful residents to show updated proof of citizenship to renew their license if they provided such proof since 2004. That means that citizenship data could be up to 20 years out of date.

The executive order seems designed as a nod to conspiracy theories — lies about who is registered and voting in our elections. These lies spread about immigrants and voting are designed in part to undermine confidence in our elections. Our elections are safe and secure, and this lawsuit was filed to ensure that all those who are eligible to vote in Virginia are allowed to.

The true impact of these last-minute purges is to make it harder for citizens to vote. In Virginia, many of the individuals who have been removed from the rolls are eligible voters who were born and raised in the United States.

The same is true in other states, like Ohio, Texas, Alabama, and Tennessee.

Case Documents

Case Documents