Biden appointed judge rules against Virginia effort to remove noncitizens from voter rolls

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal judge appointed by President Joe Biden has ordered Virginia to restore more than 1,600 voter registrations that she said were illegally purged in the last two months in an effort to stop noncitizens from voting.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles granted an injunction request brought against Virginia election officials by the Biden Justice Department, which claimed the voter registrations were wrongly canceled during a 90-day quiet period ahead of the November election that restricts states from making large-scale changes to their voter rolls.

Thomas Sanford, an attorney with the Virginia attorney general's office, told the judge at the conclusion of Friday's hearing that the state intends to appeal her ruling.

Giles said Friday that the state is not completely prohibited from removing noncitizens from the voting rolls during the 90-day quiet period, but that it must do so on an individualized basis rather than the automated, systematic program employed by the state.

State officials argued unsuccessfully that the canceled registrations followed careful procedures that targeted people who explicitly identified themselves as noncitizens to the Department of Motor Vehicles.