Trump's Trials - Supreme Court allows Virginia to purge suspected noncitizens from voter rolls

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

For this episode of Trump's Trials, All Things Considered Host Ailsa Chang speaks with NPR reporter Jude Joffe-Block.Just six days before the Election, the Supreme Court has issued a ruling that allows Virginia to continue purging individuals from state voter rolls. The state says it's removing ineligible non-citizens. But Joffe-Block has spoken to U.S. citizen voters whose registrations were also canceled as part of the state's program.Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify for new episodes each Saturday.Sign up for sponsor-free episodes and support NPR's political journalism at plus.npr.org/trumpstrials.Email the show at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's Trump's Trials from NPR. I'm Scott Detro. Supreme Court justices have issued a major ruling and an election case. The Justice Department will be relentless in defending the right to vote. Will you accept the results of the election? If it's a fair and legal election, absolutely. Former President Donald Trump's false claims about non-citizens voting in this year's election has only ramped up as we get closer and closer to Election Day. In Virginia, Republicans have moved to have over a thousand voters taken off the state's

voter rolls over suspicion they might not be citizens, and today the Supreme Court ruled in their favor, allowing the purge to move forward. The only problem is actual U.S. citizens are also being removed, hindering their ability to cast their vote this year. When we come back, NPR reporter Jude Joffe Block tells us about a U.S. citizens are also being removed, hindering their ability to cast their vote this year. When we come back, NPR reporter Jude Joffey-Bloch tells us about a U.S. citizen whose registration was also canceled as part of the state's program. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend or receive money internationally,

and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today, or visit WISE.com, T's and C's apply. This message comes from the podcast Pod Save America. It is here to help with all of the election analysis. Co-hosted by former Obama aides, the show is having honest conversations about the

state of this race and they want you to join. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform now. You're listening to Trump's Trials. I'm Scott Detrow. And now here's Elsa Chang. Clarify for us what Virginia was doing and what the Supreme Court did today. Well, yeah. Well, states have a responsibility to clean up their voter rolls. And the key issue is they have to take care to not remove eligible citizens when they do that. And they also have to be mindful of when that's happening. Virginia has an ongoing program that's

been continuing to remove people from the rolls who they believe are non-citizens based on documents they've filed or forms they filled out at the DMV. But we've talked to some US citizens, as you mentioned, who mistakenly were ensnared in this because one reason is those DMV forms can be confusing. So last Friday, a federal judge said Virginia was systematically removing voters too close to the election in violation of federal law. And the judge said Virginia had to stop and had to restore 1,600 voters back on the rolls

who had been removed since August. And then Virginia appealed up to the Supreme Court, which this morning blocked that lower court ruling from taking effect. And that allows Virginia to keep removing people from the rolls. Got it. Okay. So Virginia can keep removing people from the rolls. Got it. OK, so Virginia can keep removing people from the rolls. But you spoke to US citizens who have been affected by this,

right? What does this ruling mean for them? Well, this is a really important point because Virginia does allow people to register in person all the way through election day. So that means that if anyone is eligible to vote who was mistakenly taken off the rolls, they can still vote.

And this is Ryan Snow. He's an attorney with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under law. They should feel confident in going down either during early voting through Saturday or on Tuesday on election day and fill out the same day registration form and cast their provisional ballot and that that ballot will be counted. He said his organization and others are going to be monitoring that. And you know, we spoke with a US citizen in Lynchburg, Virginia, Nadra Wilson, and she was removed from the voter roles

as part of this program. And she was able to re-register. And she told me yesterday that she voted early. Good. OK, well, Jude, I know that you've done a lot of reporting about claims that non-citizens could vote illegally in this election. How does what's happening in Virginia tie into that? Well, yeah, this narrative about non-citizens could vote illegally in this election. How does what's happening in Virginia tie into that?

Well, yeah, this narrative about non-citizens voting in large numbers, it's not backed by evidence, but it is being promoted by former President Trump and his allies. And a lot of election lawyers are concerned this is being used to sow doubt in the election. It could even potentially be used to challenge results. And we've also seen this narrative prompting policy.

So Republican states like Virginia have been taking actions in the name of removing non-citizens, but these actions are sweeping up U.S. citizens. It happened in Alabama as well, where the state wound up acknowledging in court that its program to remove non-citizens mistakenly flagged more than 2,000 eligible voters. So voting rights groups are extremely concerned about this and they strongly disagree with the Supreme Court action today. Well, this decision from the Supreme Court comes less than a week from Election Day.

What do legal experts say about the timing of all of this? Yeah, well, so there's no written decision from the Supreme Court. So it's a little bit murky how to even interpret it. But I spoke with University of Baltimore law professor Kim Whaley. She said, given that this was happening on the shadow docket and that two lower courts had already ruled against Virginia, that it's hard not to see this action by the Supreme Court as political and ideological. And I also spoke with Nate Persily. He's an election law expert at Stanford law school. He said he was somewhat surprised. He's an election law expert at Stanford Law School. He said he was somewhat surprised.

He says the fact that the court got involved on a case like this at the last minute means they don't plan to be sitting on the sidelines. It shows they're willing to be involved in some of the minutiae of running an election. And we know a lot of litigation is headed their way this election season. That is NPR's Jude Jaffee-Blank. Thank you so much, Jude. Thank you. Thanks for listening to Trump's Trials from NPR.

Keep an eye out for more episodes like this whenever big news happens. I'm Scott Detro. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Autograph Collection Hotels with over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else. Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the unforgettable at autografecollection.com. This message comes from NPR sponsor the NPR Wine Club, a place to explore the exciting world of wine, including wines inspired by popular NPR shows like

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