The conservative-leaning court is starting to wade into voting rules as Election Day nears.
Topline
The Supreme Court gave Virginia the green light Wednesday to purge 1,600 people from its voter rolls ahead of Election Day, reversing a lower court that blocked the plan—the first in anticipated slew of decisions on voting rules the court is likely to make as Election Day nears.Key Facts
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares asked the Supreme Court Monday to nullify a lower court ruling that blocked the state from carrying out a purge of its voter rolls to remove 1,600 alleged noncitizens, which the federal government noted also resulted in U.S. citizens being removed in error.
Justices sided with the state Wednesday in a 6-3 decision, throwing out the lower court ruling and allowing Virginia to move forward with the voter purge—not offering any explanation for the decision and only noting that liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have denied Virginia’s request.
The Justice Department had argued removing the voters is unlawful because it was done too close to Election Day, as federal law bars states from removing voters from voter rolls less than 90 days before an election, and lower federal district and appeals courts sided with the federal government, ordering Virginia to restore voters to the voter rolls.
The Republican National Committee also asked the Supreme Court Monday to block a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling allowing voters to cast provisional ballots if their mail-in ballots have errors, like lacking a signature or date on the envelope.
