Ohio's Attorney General Dave Yost and 24 other state attorneys have entered a heated legal battle over Virginia's voter registration rules. They've collectively filed an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, pleading for a green light to remove approximately 1,600 individuals Virginia has marked as noncitizens from the state's voter rolls. This move directly challenges a recent U.S. District Court decision that blocks such action within a critical timeframe before federal elections.
Virginia is seeking the Supreme Court's intervention after the court ruling last Friday, as the Ohio Attorney General's office reported, mandated the reinstatement of voter registrations for noncitizens dropped since August 7. The District Court's decision aligns with the argument that within 90 days of a federal election, commonly called the "quiet period," states cannot cancel voter registrations. Reflecting on the ruling, Yost said it "has spawned mass confusion on the eve of an election by issuing a major ruling that gets the law wrong."
According to the amicus brief, the coalition of AGs believes the District Court's ruling skews the constitutional balance, jeopardizing state authority over voter eligibility. Moreover, they contest that the District Court misinterpreted the National Voter Registration Act's provisions concerning the quiet period. Their stance is clear and sharp: this period doesn't prevent states from ensuring that only eligible citizens can exercise the right to vote by keeping noncitizens off the voter rolls.
The brief emphatically states via Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost's website, "Noncitizens are not eligible voters." This sentiment is echoed and bolstered by the declaration that noncitizen ineligibility was in effect before and after the National Voter Registration Act was legislated and remains the status quo. Attorneys general from a litany of states, including Alabama, Alaska, and Texas, are among those who've put their weight behind the argument Yost brings before the high court.
