Another measure to tighten election integrity in a state that could be key to a Donald Trump victory this fall has been adopted. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin took decisive action on Wednesday by issuing an executive order aimed at bolstering election security in the state. The order includes the removal of noncitizens from voter rolls and the establishment of procedures to prosecute them, and former President Donald Trump has been praising these efforts for months.
Youngkin’s office has released Executive Order 35, aimed at strengthening election integrity in Virginia. This order introduces several measures, including stricter ballot security protocols, improved testing for voter machines, and enhanced voter-list maintenance to more effectively identify and remove noncitizens from the rolls. This new directive builds on previous efforts, such as a June executive order that updated data-sharing agreements and streamlined the process for removing deceased voters from the rolls, the Daily Caller reported.
“The Virginia model for Election Security works,” Youngkin said Wednesday in a press release announcing the executive order. “This isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue, it’s an American and Virginian issue. Every legal vote deserves to be counted without being watered down by illegal votes or inaccurate machines. In Virginia, we don’t play games and our model for election security is working.”
Trump praised the order. “The beautiful Commonwealth of Virginia, superbly led by Governor Glenn Youngkin, IS TAKING A STRONG LEAD IN SECURING THE ELECTION IN NOVEMBER — PROTECTING EVERY LEGAL VOTE AND KEEPING ILLEGAL ALIENS THAT HAVE BEEN LET INTO OUR COUNTRY FROM VOTING,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday.
There have been documented instances of noncitizens appearing on voter rolls. On Wednesday, the Virginia Attorney General reported that his office has identified and removed over 6,000 noncitizens from the voter lists since he took office. Youngkin’s order specifically addresses noncitizen participation in elections by instructing the Commissioner of the Department of Elections to certify in writing that individuals who cannot verify their citizenship will be removed from the statewide voter registration list. Additionally, the Department of Motor Vehicles is required to verify an applicant’s identity and legal status with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration database before issuing a driver’s license.
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The executive order also details procedures for handling noncitizen attempts to register to vote, including notifying prosecutors of such attempts and affirming that the Virginia Attorney General has the “full authority” to enforce state election laws. “We verify the legal presence and identity of voters using DMV data and other trusted data sources to update our voter rolls daily, not only adding new voters, but scrubbing the lists to remove those that should not be on it, like the deceased, individuals that have moved, and non-citizens that have accidentally or maliciously attempted to register,” Youngkin said of his order.
The governor’s order comes amid increasing Republican efforts to prevent illegal migrants and other noncitizens from participating in federal elections, while many Democrats argue that these concerns are unfounded. In July, President Joe Biden dismissed claims of noncitizen voting as “easily disproven falsehoods” in his statement opposing a House GOP bill aimed at bolstering election integrity.
