Virginia senators demand federal probe after Republican governor cut state voter roll

Virginia's two Democratic senators are urging the Justice Department to launch a Voting Rights Act investigation into Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin after his administration was accused of improperly removing hundreds of people from the commonwealth voter rolls, reportedThe Washington Post on Tuesday.

The letter, signed by Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine as well as several other lawmakers on Friday, urges Attorney General Merrick Garland to probe why 270 fully qualified Virginia voters were "purged," saying, “This widespread error creates an enormous barrier to the democratic process for these affected Virginians while early voting has already begun for this November’s election.” This comes after several other Virginia officials have demanded an investigation.

Election officials working in the Youngkin administration have said that the removals were an innocent mistake and that the voters will be restored before the November 7 legislative elections in Virginia, which will decide control of both chambers and determine how much power the Republican governor has to enact a more culturally conservative agenda in the last two years of his term.

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The problem came about because Youngkin's administration removed over 10,000 people from the voter rolls earlier this year due to a disqualifying felony conviction that was not caught by the state's electronic systems. Virginia is one of the only states that permanently disenfranchises some people with felony convictions even after completion of their sentence; many have their rights restored by the governor, but the system update the Youngkin administration pushed forward was designed to catch errors where voters had their rights restored but committed a second felony afterward.

The changes, however, mistakenly counted some people who had been flagged for simple probation violations as having been convicted of a new felony, improperly canceling their voter registrations. The previous three governors before Youngkin, including one Republican and two Democrats, implemented policies where at least some people had their voting rights restored automatically on completion of their sentence. Youngkin, however, has rolled this back, requiring everyone to apply individually for a restoration of rights and deciding case by case with no transparent criteria.