After Latest Youngkin Vote Purge of 3,400, Rep. Bobby Scott and Virginia Dems Demand DOJ "Take Immediate Action," Miyares Remains MIA
➡️ Election Day 2023 is in 7 days on Nov. 7, 2023
➡️ Last day of in-person early voting: Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023 at 5 p.m.
➡️ Deadline to apply for ballot by mail: Oct. 27, 2023
After 3,400 Youngkin Vote Purge, Rep. Scott, McClellan, Virginia Dems Contact U.S. Department of Justice Second Time
As Black Virginia News reported on September 23, the Youngkin Administration is removing voters from the rolls by using parole violations as a way of invalidating voters.
In Virginia, the Governor alone can decide on the voting rights of ex-felons and when they are reinstated. The complete lack of due process and the mystery behind how exactly the Youngkin Administration decides who returns to the voting rolls is the subject of a lawsuit by the Virginia NAACP.
RELATED: Alarming: Reps. Scott, McClellan Et al. Alert AG Garland on Youngkin Admin Removing 10,000+ Voters
On October 6, 2023, the Youngkin Administration falsely claimed that only 270 had been removed from the rolls. Last week on Oct. 27 — only 13 days before election day in Virginia on Nov. 7, 2023 — it was revealed that the number was much higher: 3,400.
The Youngkin Administration hasn’t offered any verification that the number is only 3,400 or that they added the voters back to the rolls. History has demonstrated that taking the Youngkin Administration’s word for it has been a mistake.
Early voting started in Virginia back on September 22, 2023. Gov. Youngkin has offered no known information on whether they’ve informed the thousands of voters they removed from registration that their voting rights have been restored. Virginia has witnessed several close elections in recent years, including a 2017 House of Delegates race between Republican David Yancey and Democrat Shelly Simonds that was tied. The Virginia State Board of Elections pulled Yancey’s name from a stoneware bowl to decide the winner of the race.
On this Halloween 2023, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares remains a a ghost on the vote purge issue. Miyares has yet to make a public comment as news of the latest voting purge in Virginia grows and a consistent lack of answers continues.
This morning, (Oct. 31) Democrats in Virginia’s congressional delegation again urged the Department of Justice to investigate the Youngkin Administration’s vote purges.
In a second letter to U.S. Attorney Merrick Garland dated Oct. 30, 2023, the delegation members outline several past problems as well as the current ones revealed last week.
The members of Congress have yet to receive a response from the Department of Justice.
In their second letter to Garland, Virginia Democrats in Congress are calling on DOJ, “to investigate the Youngkin Administration’s improper removal of nearly 3,400 eligible voters from the rolls.” No Virginia Republicans joined the letter.
FROM THE SECOND LETTER TO DOJ: “Earlier this month, the Virginia Department of Elections (the Department) first announced that it had improperly removed about 270 voters whose rights were restored after felony convictions,” the letter reads. “News reports from late last week indicated that the Department had actually improperly removed 3,400 qualified voters. This is over 10 times more voters than initially announced, and the information comes less than two weeks before Election Day and more than a month after the start of early voting. The Department has indicated those affected voters’ records have been sent – and updated – to the local registrars who have then notified these voters via mail; however, it is not clear that these voters will receive the information they are reinstated in a timely manner. Further, the Department noted that 100 of the voters who were wrongly removed have yet to be reinstated and may not be notified of their reinstatement with sufficient time to cast a ballot in next month’s election.”
The second letter follows a previous letter sent on October 6th demanding the DOJ investigate whether these actions violate the Voting Rights Act or other federal laws.
“We reiterate our request that DOJ take immediate action to investigate how these removals happened and what is being done to ensure that those whose names were illegally removed from the voting rolls are informed in a timely and effective manner so that they are able to cast a vote in the November 7, 2023, Virginia election,” the letter states.
October 6, 2023…
…October 29, 2023
Voting Problems Persist Under Youngkin with No Answers in Sight on Vote Purges
Since Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin took office in January 2022
there have been a series of voter related issues in the Commonwealth of Virginia. There have been few answers from Governor Glenn Youngkin or his Board of Elections Commissioner Susan Beals.
The latest problem appeared in the news last week as the Youngkin Administration admitted that thousands of voters were purged from the rolls. They then claimed, with no verification, that most of the voters purged were returned to the rolls.
Below are 11 examples of the endless issues that have emerged during the Youngkin Administration regarding voting.
🚩 In October 29, 2023: The Youngkin Administration reveals that they purged 3,400 voters from the rolls, not 270, which is what they previously stated. Read here.
🚩 In October 6, 2023: The Washington Post reports that the Youngkin Administration admits they “mistakenly” removed 270 registered voters from the rolls — a number few believe is that low. Congressman Bobby Scott calls for a DOJ investigation. Read more.
🚩 In September 2023: It’s revealed that the Youngkin Administration removed 17,368 registered voters from the rolls in what the Virginia ACLU defined as an "unprecedented" move. Read more.
🚩 In August 2023: A Republican-led board voted 3-0 to eliminate Sunday voting used by Black churches for Souls to the Polls in Richmond. After backlash, they reversed the decision. But Republicans eliminated Sunday voting in other Black neighborhoods in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. Read more.
🚩 In July 2023: after it became clear that the numbers of former felons getting their voting rights restored had plummeted, the Virginia NAACP asked the Youngkin Administration for details on what the rights restoration process is. They receive almost no answers. Read more.
🚩 In March 2023: Youngkin ended restoration of rights for ex-felons. The move made Virginia the only state in the nation that kills voting rights for everyone who commits a felony. Read more.
🚩 In May 2023: Gov. Youngkin decided to remove Virginia from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) even though Virginia was a founding member of ERIC under former GOP Gov. Bob McDonell. ERIC is a bipartisan data-sharing group that assists in keeping voter rolls updated. Read more.
🚩 In April 2023: It was reported that Youngkin appointee Susan Beals, who is the Virginia Commissioner of Elections. attended Heritage Foundation's Secretaries of State Conference. Read more.
🚩 In October 2022: It’s revealed that “thousands of Virginia voters were sent incorrect voting info.” Information was missing on mailers sent to Clifton, Dumfries, Haymarket, Herndon, Occoquan, Quantico and Vienna, according to a press release from Susan Beals’ office. Team Youngkin blames the printer. Read more.
🚩 In October 2022: Attorney General Jason Miyares says, “it should be easy to vote, and hard to cheat,” and creates an Election Integrity Unit but then ignored the many issues and election snafus during the Youngkin Admin under Susan Beals. What has the Election Integrity Unit done? What are the details of their work? That remains a mystery. Read more.
🚩 In November 2022: It was reported by VPM that there was a “glitch” that “related to the transfer of data from local DMV offices to local election offices caused more than 225,000 voter registration records to sit in limbo from May through October.” Read more.
Virginia Dem Party Claims Absentee Ballot Rejections Harm Black Voters in Virginia
Though the Democratic Party of Virginia has so far failed to file a lawsuit against the Youngkin Administration related to the endless problems around voter purges and other voting issues, they are voicing concern around absentee ballot rejections.
Yesterday, they released the following statement:
Democratic Party of Virginia: A recent, internal, precinct-level analysis of rejected mail ballots has exposed a troubling pattern in absentee ballot rejections, revealing a disproportionate impact on voters of color. As of October 27, Black voters face double the rejection rate (5.2%) compared to white voters (2.5%), with specific localities like Henrico County and Newport News experiencing even higher disparities.
This racial discrepancy extends to Latino and AAPI voters, with rejection rates of 3.4% and 3.2%, respectively. These alarming figures demonstrate the need for the Department of Elections and local election officials to take seriously their obligations to inform voters of their ability to correct their absentee ballot as soon as possible.
Aaron Mukerjee, Voter Protection Director for the Democratic Party of Virginia, emphasizes the implications of these findings: “Black Virginians’ ballots are being rejected at twice the rate of those of white voters. This is unacceptable, and raises the stakes for election officials to get this right. Every Virginian has a constitutional right to vote and have that ballot counted. That means taking the ballot cure process seriously. We cannot allow barriers to undermine the fundamental right to vote for communities of color. We stand ready to help eligible voters cast their ballot.”
The Democratic Party operates a Voter Protection Hotline at 844-482-8683 to help eligible Virginians cast their ballot and answer questions from voters.
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