CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – Questions about voter fraud are suddenly front and center in Virginia, but the most important question might be whether the problem actually exists.
In August, Governor Youngkin issued an executive order that requires the continued removal of people who cannot prove they are U.S. citizens. That means that now, just about three weeks before Election Day, people are still being taken off the voter list. Youngkin says it’s imperative to preventing voter fraud.
But others, including the federal government, see it very differently.
“Voter fraud is a made-up problem,” said Larry Sabato, Director of the UVA Center for Politics. “It isn’t called the Big Lie for nothing. It is a lie.”
According to an NPR-PBS-Marist poll, 86% of Republicans and 33% of Democrats are concerned or very concerned about voter fraud. Those numbers are concerning, Sabato says, because there is little to no concrete evidence of voter fraud in our nation.
“It‘s a fine system, it works well, and unfortunately, we‘ve crossed yet another boundary where politicians, for their own interests in order to capture elections, are ruining people‘s trust in our election system,” Sabato said.
On Friday, October 11, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Virginia, contending that the executive order violates the National Voter Registration Act.
Youngkin disagrees.
“This is a law that’s been on our books since 2006,” Youngkin said, pointing out that then-Governor Tim Kaine originally signed off on the legislation. “It requires our election process and governors to use DMV data when an individual self-identifies as a non-citizen.”
That comes down to a tiny, unchecked box, and it’s not only non-citizens who are leaving it blank.
“Say you‘re registering for the first time, and you leave off that check box at the top, so you don‘t necessarily say no, but you don’t say yes either. That is a reason for us to deny registration,” said Taylor Yowell, Director of Elections and General Registrar for the City of Charlottesville. “A lot of times, it is a mistake. It is the very first question in the top left corner, so a lot of people tend to just overlook it.”
Yowell says before Youngkin’s executive order, the Department of Elections sent them two to three people to remove from the voter roll each month. Now, they receive four to five names, though Yowell says this is probably because more people register closer to the election.
The DOJ’s suit zeroes in on the so-called “quiet period,” or the 90-day period leading up to the election, when systematic voter removal efforts are prohibited.
Sabato says the purpose of this quiet period is, in part, to avoid confusing voters and deterring them from heading to the polls.
“They‘ll say, well, it doesn‘t look like the system’s even fair and honest, why should I bother to register, why should I bother to vote?” Sabato said. “And that, in my view, is a mortal sin.”
Youngkin has fired back at the feds, saying that his executive order is not a systematic removal, but rather an individualized one.
“Why is it that anyone could argue that a process that removes noncitizens off of our voter rolls is anything else other than common sense and constitutional?” Youngkin said. “This seems far more political than otherwise.”
But Sabato says the governor has political motivations of his own.
“He‘s catering to the Trump base of the Republican party,” Sabato said. “It’s that simple.”
If you have any questions about voting or the status of your registration, you can call the Charlottesville registrar at 434-970-3250, or the Albemarle County registrar at 434-972-4173.
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