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Dear Editor,

State Senator Tammy Mulchi (Senate District 9) misleads her constituents and your newspaper readers by saying that the Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit against the State of Virginia, Virginia State Board of Elections, and Virginia Commissioner of Elections is politically motivated and an effort to keep ineligible voters on the voter registration rolls. 

State Delegate Tommy Wright (House District 50) also misleads his constituents and your newspaper readers by stating that the review of the voter registration rolls is simply to determine “whether a voter checked ‘NO’ on the question of whether they’re a U.S. citizen when interacting with the Department of Motor Vehicles” and that “Democrats are OK with non-citizens voting in our elections.” 

The truth is that the DOJ filed the lawsuit to “challenge a systematic state program aimed at removing voters from its election rolls too close to the Nov. 5 general election in violation of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).” The DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs, in their Oct. 11 press release, states that “Section 8(c)(2) of the NVRA, also known as the Quiet Period Provision, requires states to complete systematic programs aimed at removing the names of ineligible voters from voter registration lists no later than 90 days before federal elections.” They also say, “By canceling voter registrations within 90 days of Election Day, Virginia places qualified voters in jeopardy of being removed from the rolls and creates the risk of confusion for the electorate. Congress adopted the National Voter Registration Act’s quiet period restriction to prevent error-prone, eleventh hour efforts that all too often disenfranchise qualified voters. The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy and the Justice Department will continue to ensure that the rights of qualified voters are protected.”

Governor Youngkin signed his Executive Order #35 on August 7 and it requires daily updates to the voter list to “remove ineligible voters” and to “remove individuals who are unable to verify that they are citizens to the Department of Motor Vehicles.” August 7 is 90 days from the November 5 election, and daily removal of voters from the date he signed #35 is within this 90-day period and violates the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.

Governor Youngkin, in his statement about this lawsuit, also stated that the lawsuit is politically motivated and is an action that tries “to interfere in our elections.” Surely our government leaders know, as do we, that saying that something is politically motivated doesn’t make it politically motivated; that term is used divisively. That so many non-citizens must be removed from the voter list every year speaks to the failure of the “many safeguards” that Sen. Mulchi spoke of. The first safeguard rests on the shoulders of the Department of Motor Vehicles to not forward voter registration applications that either have the non-citizen block checked or both citizen and non-citizen blocks unchecked. Fix the system at the source rather than wait until 90 days before an election to remove voters.

Trudy Berry

Green Bay