With less than a month to go until Election Day, Virginia's governor is facing a federal lawsuit over removing alleged non-citizens from the voter rolls. But purging the voter rolls has a long and complicated history in Virginia.
Back in the 1890s, election after election was contested with allegations of voter fraud and stuffing the ballot box. That led to a Jim Crow-era constitution. Jatia Wrighten at Virginia Commonwealth University says it was the largest voter purge in Virginia history.
"Jim Crow laws were really effective in purging the voting rolls, and it was overwhelmingly Black people who were affected by these laws," Wrighten notes. "And so what's going on now in Virginia, people assume that oh we don't want illegal voters to vote, and that could be part of who is affected. But you are absolutely going to see Black people being affected, and I don't think that's a coincidence."
The voter purge that happened 120 years ago offers lessons for today, says Wes Bellamy at Virginia State University.
"This is the same place that through acts of voter purging took away about one third of the voting population." Bellamy says. "So, for me, it brings back a lot of immediate thoughts of historical mistreatment, specifically for Black folk."
Last week, officials at the Department of Justice brought a lawsuit against the governor for trying to cancel voter registrations within 90 days of the election, which they say places qualified voters in jeopardy of being removed from the rolls.
Governor Glenn Youngkin calls the lawsuit “a desperate attempt to attack the legitimacy of the elections in the Commonwealth.” Youngkin's administration cites a Virginia law that's been in effect since 2006 for the removals.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
