There’s been no shortage of the quadrennial effort to disenfranchise voters from Republicans this year. It seems like they just have to keep coming up with new ways to do it, since they always get declared illegal in court, but they keep trying.
The same thing happened this morning, when a federal judge in Virginia ruled [1] that the state had to stop its program of purging voters at the last minute that they “suspected” might be non-citizens.
Set aside for a moment the ludicrous nature of believing that, of all the benefits of being an America that a non-citizen might try to avail themselves of, they might make voting a priority.
The system in Virginia by which Republicans were trying to force likely Democratic voters off the rolls is based on whether or not someone is suspected of being a non-citizen. Remember the “Papers Please” laws that allow ICE and CBP agents to just get on board a Greyhound and ask people for their immigration documents?
Think about it: What would make someone “suspect” that a person was a non-citizen? It can’t be anything but their last name. From that, those names that sound “foreign” (I’m guessing there’s a V or a Z or some combination of both) would be culled for inspection.
Okay, that’s already unconstitutional and illegal profiling. But the thing is, they weren’t even inspecting anything. They were just taking names they suspected of being non-citizens and removing them from the voter rolls.
Not only should your brain be saying “OF COURSE the judge ruled against them, that’s blatant racism and discrimination,” but you should consider the possibility of future lawsuits from the people affected by their policy. Because what happens if they have no idea that their name has been removed, and they still try to vote?
That’s what the GOP is hoping for. They want to create voter fraud by making people who HAVE the right to vote do so when they’re not registered.
Now, aside from the obvious stuff about racism and election cheating here, one disturbing factor is that the law governing this, which the Republicans surely knew about in advance, actually only says that blanket voter purges are illegal within 90 days of an election. These Republicans only got caught trying to cheat because they waited so long to do it. I mean, again, they did that so they could “catch” illegal voting and question the results of the election; everything is about framing the debate as election fraud if Trump loses. But they could have gotten away with it if they’d been more sure that people who were affected wouldn’t catch on in time.
“That disturbing factor was delicious,” you say. “May I have another?”
This was already done. The judge’s order today wasn’t to stop the GOP from performing the purge, it was to force them to put the people they already purged back on the voter rolls.
Disenfranchisement Donnie was none too happy about that. Over on Truth Social, he took his fury for a spin:
“Sleepy Joe Biden and Comrade Kamala Harris ridiculously accuse me of wanting to “weaponize” the Justice Department, when they have done all of the weaponizing. Now, their truly Weaponized Department of “Injustice,” and a Judge (appointed by Joe), have ORDERED the Great Commonwealth of Virginia to PUT NON-CITIZEN VOTERS BACK ON THE ROLLS. This is a totally unacceptable travesty, and Governor Youngkin is absolutely right to appeal this ILLEGAL ORDER, and the U.S. Supreme Court will hopefully fix it! Only U.S. Citizens should be allowed to vote. Keep fighting, Glenn – AND REPUBLICANS IN VIRGINIA, KEEP VOTING EARLY! I will be calling in to Glenn’s Rally with Lara Trump tomorrow morning to talk about this crazy Ruling, and announce my final stop in Virginia before Election Day. TUNE IN!”
No, Donald. They have not been ordered to put non-citizens back on the voter rolls. They have been ordered to restore the voter registrations of people who were illegally purged based entirely on their name sounding foreign within 90 days of an election.
You guys got caught trying to cheat again, and if it weren’t for Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles in Virginia, you might have gotten away with it.
Trump then fired off this craziness, “CEASE & DESIST: I, together with many Attorneys and Legal Scholars, am watching the Sanctity of the 2024 Presidential Election very closely because I know, better than most, the rampant Cheating and Skullduggery that has taken place by the Democrats in the 2020 Presidential Election. It was a Disgrace to our Nation! Therefore, the 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again. We cannot let our Country further devolve into a Third World Nation, AND WE WON’T! Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”
I, for one, look forward to seeing even more heroes like Judge Giles uncover these plots and play the Uno Reverse card on the GOP as they keep looking for ways to either hand the election to Trump, or at least cast enough doubt on it to force endless lawsuits and sow doubt among the American people about the election results.