Wyoming Joins Court Appeal Over ‘Noncitizen’ Voters

Wyoming has joined a 24-state coalition of attorneys general urging the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the commonwealth of Virginia to remove “self-identified noncitizens” from voter rolls.

On Sunday, the Virginia attorney general filed an emergency appeal in a last-ditch effort to block a ruling in an order from the U.S. District Court to return over 1,500 noncitizens to the voter rolls that have been removed since Aug. 7.

Judges from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected Virginia's request in a rare Sunday ruling to stop an order from a lower court to reinstate noncitizen registrations removed from voter rolls.

The amicus brief filed by the states argues that the ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia:

“undermines the constitutional authority of states to determine voter qualifications” to maintain election integrity “by allowing only eligible citizens to vote.”

The states argue that the court's decision is,

 “based on flawed interpretation” of the National Voter Registration Act’s 90-day “quiet period.” They say the quiet period “does not apply to the removal of noncitizens from voter rolls.”

“Noncitizens are not eligible voters,” the brief reads. “They were not eligible voters before Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act, they were not eligible when Congress passed the NVRA, and they are not eligible today.”

Virginia argues the removal of noncitizens from the voter rolls, saying the ruling was “politically motivated.”

"It should never be illegal to remove an illegal voter," said Miyares. "The Department of Justice pulled this shameful, politically motivated stunt 25 days before Election Day, challenging a Virginia process signed into law 18 years ago by a Democrat governor and approved by the Department of Justice in 2006.”

Virginia is joined by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.