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Attorney General Murrill joins coalition asking Supreme Court to expedite Virginia voter registration case

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill joined attorneys general from 26 states in filing an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to allow Virginia to remove non-citizens from its voter roll.

“Louisiana stands with Virginia! It’s appalling that the federal government would sue Virginia when these people never had the right to vote in our country in the first place. We must protect the integrity of our sacred elections,” said Attorney General Liz Murrill.

The brief argues that a preliminary injunction that halted the state of Virginia from removing self-identified non-citizens from its rolls undermines a states’ authority to determine voter qualifications. Virginia’s law provides mechanisms to protect election integrity, while ensuring only U.S. citizens remain on voter rolls.

“The upcoming election is hotly contested and has caused division around the country. Perhaps the division would be lower if the federal government were not interfering with the election via last-minute attacks on state efforts to police voter qualifications,” the amicus brief reads.

The Eastern District of Virginia Court’s recent decision to temporarily stop Virginia from removing non-citizens from its rolls will result in Congress forcing a state to allow non-citizens to vote in an election over the objection of that state.

It converts Virginia’s statute into a federal mandate that forces 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, according to the brief.

“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 amicus reads.

Kansas is the state leading the amicus brief.

In addition to Louisiana and Kansas, attorneys general from 25 other states joined the brief. They include attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Read the amicus brief here.

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