Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond praised the U.S. Supreme Court today for its quick action allowing Virginia to remove non-citizens from its voter roll.
Drummond and 25 other state attorneys general filed an amicus brief with the high court on Monday urging justices to stay a preliminary injunction halting the state from removing self-identified non-citizens from its roll. The court issued a stay this morning.
“This is a victory for election integrity,” Drummond said. “I am pleased the court affirmed the authority of states to police voter qualifications and keep non-citizens from voting.”
In the brief, Drummond argued that the Eastern District of Virginia Court’s earlier decision to temporarily stop Virginia from removing non-citizens from its roll would result in Congress forcing a state to allow non-citizens to vote in an election over the objection of that state.
It would have converted Virginia’s statute into a federal mandate that would force states to allow non-citizens to vote in an upcoming election in violation of state law – and federal law itself – when a non-citizen is discovered on the rolls within 90 days of an election.
“Non-citizens are not eligible voters. 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,” the brief stated.
