In the final days of this grueling election cycle, President Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are scouring battleground states to collect every last vote. Legal battles are also brewing as both sides seek to gain the upper hand in the election litigation arena. The Supreme Court most recently issued an order allowing Virginia to remove approximately 1,600 noncitizens from its voter rolls, dealing a significant blow to election integrity.
In federal elections, of course, only American citizens can register to vote. Noncitizens who register to vote or vote in federal elections (for president, vice president, senator, representative, etc.) commit a federal felony. In addition to prison terms and fines for these separate felonies for registering and voting in federal elections, noncitizen voters can be deported from the United States. Illegal votes invalidate legal votes, so the harsh consequences are understandable. All legal votes should be counted, but all illegal votes should not be counted, and those who vote illegally should be subject to severe penalties. Illegal voting, contrary to President Trump’s leftist nonsense, does not, but it does endanger our democracy.
In 2006, Virginia passed legislation to strengthen voting security. The law, signed by then-governor (and now Democratic senator and former vice presidential candidate for Hillary Clinton) Tim Kaine, established a purge process to remove noncitizens from Virginia’s rolls. The Justice Department approved this law, and it has worked successfully for nearly 20 years. In 2024, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin again led a similar purge that resulted in the removal of approximately 1,600 voters. For example, individuals who identified themselves as noncitizens on their driver’s licenses and subsequently registered to vote were excluded.
Less than a month before the election, Biden’s Justice Department sued the battleground state of Virginia over the purge. The Justice Department argued that the purge violated the so-called quiet period 90 days before an election under the National Voter Registration Act. It is unlikely that Congress intended to prevent states from removing people who are prohibited from voting under federal criminal law and who could be jailed or deported for doing so. Nevertheless, Judge Patricia Toliver Giles, appointed by President Biden, blocked the purge in Virginia and ordered the reregistration of excluded voters. Therefore, an illegal vote by a non-citizen could invalidate the legal vote of an American citizen and change the outcome of the presidential election. Governor Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares took the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, a left-leaning court. The Fourth Circuit ruled against them, but as discussed above, the Supreme Court has just issued an order suspending the district court’s injunction and allowing Virginia to proceed.
Non-citizen voting is not the only front line in the fight over election integrity. For those of you of the generation who remember when Election Day was Election Day, everyone except military and those with a valid excuse voted and votes were counted that day. Under 2 USC § 7, Congress established election day as the first Tuesday in November, unless that Tuesday is November 1st. But recently, an alarming trend has emerged in which states are giving voters so-called grace periods. Voters can postmark their ballots by Election Day, and ballots will be counted as long as they arrive within a certain number of days after the election. The District of Columbia and approximately 20 states have these laws. As a result, California is struggling to count millions of ballots, taking weeks to complete them in time for Electoral College certification.
Mississippi has a five-day grace period. Republicans disputed this, arguing that Election Day meant Election Day. Ballots must be received by that date, they argued, and not later. A distinguished panel of potential Supreme Court nominees Justices Kyle Duncan, James Ho and Andrew Oldham agreed, holding that ballots received after Election Day cannot be counted. Showed. The ruling could impact a close race between Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic Rep. Colin Allred in Texas, which is within the jurisdiction of the 5th Circuit.
When we say Election Day, we mean it literally. The Supreme Court should follow the order in the Virginia case and end the practice of receiving and counting ballots after Election Day. This will go a long way in restoring people’s confidence in the integrity of elections. The left will howl that such a ruling is a threat to democracy, but in reality it would strengthen it.
Mike Davis is the founder and president of the Article III Project.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
