Fairfax County and Loudoun County remove non-citizens from voter rolls

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (7News) — Loudoun County canceled the voter registration of 98 people who have been identified as non-citizens by the state, according to the Loudoun County Elections Office.

After Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration identified 6,303 non-citizens who were registered to vote in Virginia and the governor issued an executive order ordering their removal from the voter rolls, the Fairfax County Office of Elections wrote in a memo that Fairfax County canceled voter registrations of 985 voters and is now referring them to Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano and Attorney General Jason Miyares to determine if the individuals violated election laws.

RELATED | Youngkin administration removes 6K non-citizens from voter lists ahead of Nov. elections

The U.S. Department of Justice said Virginia is violating the federal law’s prohibition on systematic efforts to remove voters within 90 days of an election.

The DOJ is trying to stop Gov. Youngkin’s efforts to remove non-citizens from the voter rolls in court.

In a new memo obtained by 7News, Gov. Youngkin’s counselor Richard Cullen argues that the 90-day “quiet period” under the National Voter Registration Act is not relevant to this process since Virginia conducts an individualized—not systematic—review per Virginia law in order to correct registration records.

Youngkin said he is enforcing the law signed by Tim Kaine when Kaine was governor.

“This process has been in place since 2006,” said Youngkin. “We had recent Democrat governors like Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam use this exact same process within the 90-day period.”

“Should non-U.S. citizens vote in American elections? Do you think they should?” 7News Reporter Nick Minock asked Sen. Kaine in July.

“No,” Kaine answered. “Voting should be reserved for U.S. citizens.”

“Senator Kaine believes that non-citizens should not vote in state or federal elections, and that’s why he signed legislation as governor to guard against it. It is illegal for non-citizens to vote and the good news is that there is no evidence that non-citizens have voted or are voting in Virginia. And just as we want to block non-citizens from voting, we need to keep eligible voters from being purged from voting rolls, particularly just weeks from an election. Senator Kaine is focused on making sure that every eligible Virginian has the opportunity to vote in this critical election," Kaine’s spokesperson told 7News on Wednesday.

“We know for a fact that they have been voting,” said Katie Gorka, the Chairwoman of the Fairfax County Republican Committee.

Gorka wants Virginia to strengthen its laws to make sure non-citizens can't register to vote in the first place.

“We want the Department of Motor Vehicles to work more closely with ELECT, the Department of Elections, in sharing document numbers, the legal presence document numbers and we want ELECT to be working with the Department of Homeland Security in order to verify whether people are eligible to vote,” said Gorka. “They are not doing that. The other thing is the Department of Motor Vehicles is not verifying social security numbers. So you see, there are all kinds of issues here that make it too easy for non-citizens, whether they plan on it or not, to end up on the voter rolls.”

"What impact could it have if non-citizens vote in the elections in Virginia?” 7News asked Gorka.

“It could have a huge impact,” said Gorka. “It could sway the election. Trump and Harris are neck and neck. We've also got some very close congressional races. If you have a close race and you have even just a few thousand non-citizens who are voting, that could determine a race."