Virginia does not have to restore the registrations of 1,600 voters, some of whom appear to have been wrongly removed, ahead of next week’s election, the US supreme court said on Wednesday.

The court made the decision on its emergency docket and did not give a rationale for its decision, which is customary for rulings on an expedited basis. All three liberal justices on the court – Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson – said they would not have halted a lower-court ruling earlier in October ordering the state to restore the voter registrations.

The legal dispute centers on a 7 August executive order by the Virginia governor, Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, directing the state to run its voter registration rolls against DMV data on a daily basis to check for non-citizens. The justice department and civil rights groups sued, saying that the state was violating a federal law that prohibits systematic removals of voters within 90 days of a federal election.

  • kmartburrito@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Thankfully Virginia has same day voter registration, so at least some of them will be able to re-register on the spot. I’m sure some will be impacted by not having identification, etc, but this is better than many states that don’t allow same day registration when voting.

    Still, fuck those asshats. Is so telling when you see people trying to take away one’s chance to have their voice heard.

    • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      You don’t need ID to register to vote in Virginia. You just need to fill out a form.

      You do need ID to actually vote, though. So bring it to the poll regardless.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Thankfully Virginia has same day voter registration, so at least some of them will be able to re-register on the spot.

      Will would-be voters be TOLD that or will they just be turned away because they are told they aren’t registered to vote.

      • 418_im_a_teapot@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        … after standing in line for four hours.

        And how many of those won’t be able to get that time off work again or be able to get a babysitter again.

      • kmartburrito@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        It would hopefully go like this - “It doesn’t look like you’re registered, let’s do that now” but I’m not 100% sure.