A recording of the press conference can be found here using the password %8Cw&6Tj. 

Alexandria, Virginia—Tomorrow, there will be a hearing in the lawsuit brought by the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights, the League of Women Voters Virginia, and African Communities Together against the Youngkin Administration for illegally purging voters. In advance of the hearing, voting rights advocates hosted a press conference calling on the courts to promptly restore the voter registrations of those voters who have been purged from the voting rolls so that they can make their voices heard in our elections.

“So far, within the 90 days, we have identified 15 of our members with a history of voting who have been purged from the voter rolls and had their access to the ballot box blocked,” Gigi Traore, Civic Engagement Director at African Communities Together, said. “We stand together with the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights and the League of Women Voters Virginia to reclaim the right to the ballot box. We are demanding that the dream we have fought for be returned to us as full and rightful citizens.” 

“All over the country, people who want to create confusion and sew the seeds of doubt in the integrity of our election system are hiding behind false fears and overhyped claims about voter fraud in order to do what they say they are opposing: they are taking the vote away from U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote,” Mohamed Gula, VACIR Board Chair and EMGAGE Virginia State Director, said. “Those of us on this call today are uniting together to say enough. Enough of the fear-mongering against migrants. Enough of the rhetoric that is undermining our democracy. Enough of the distractions from critical issues facing our communities, both immigrant and native, citizens and non-citizens in the Commonwealth, and enough of leaders ignoring the real issues facing Virginians. We can and must come together and ensure that the public knows that our elections are free and fair and that we do not need to take steps to take the vote away from citizens in order to fix something that is not broken.”

“The purge process is a violation of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which was a bipartisan bill intended to prevent the erroneous, wrongful removal of eligible voters during the 90-day period before an election. Congress recognized that these types of purge programs are likely to remove some eligible voters and doing that this close to an election will make it that much harder for these voters to cast a ballot and have their lawful vote counted,” Ryan Snow, Counsel at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said. “We have learned that over 1600 voters have been removed from the rolls, and 75 voter registration applications have been denied within the 90-day window because of this purge program. A large portion of these voters are eligible. This is a deliberate and unlawful purge on the eve of an election. These voters and community members have been intimidated by receiving removal notices. The threat of investigation and criminal prosecution is extremely intimidating for lawful voters who have fought for the right to vote, have dreamed and achieved their goal of becoming a US citizen and are now part of our communities and want to participate in the civic proces.”

“The important question to ask is why? Why are politicians trying to deceive the American people when we know that our elections are safe and secure and only eligible voters are participating,” Anna Dorman, Counsel at Protect Democracy, asked. “This campaign of lies is drawn straight from the pretty traditional authoritarian playbook used to disrupt and ultimately deny election results that they don’t like. The authoritarian movement in our country has repeatedly telegraphed that the plan is to use these lies as a pretext to suggest that the election results are not trustworthy, allowing the movement to undermine and challenge the results of our election in November.”

Background: 

The lawsuit calls on the court to do the following:

  • Declare the Purge Program violates the National Voting Rights Act of 1993
  • Order Defendants to stop the Purge Program
  • Order Defendants to instruct local officials to reinstate to the voter rolls anyone removed through the Purge Program, except those who confirmed they are not a citizen, and ensure they can cast a regular ballot 
  • Order Defendants to notify affected voters that they remain registered and can cast a regular ballot if they are eligible.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) filed its own lawsuit on October 11, alleging Virginia’s Purge Program is systematically removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election.