Virginia defies Democratic Party lawsuit and purges 40,000 voters before election

By David Edwards

The Virginia Board of Elections said this week that it had purged nearly 40,000 names from the voter rolls before a U.S. District judge could rule on a lawsuit filed by the Democratic Party.

Earlier this month, the Democratic Party of Virginia had filed the lawsuit after learning that the state planned to purge 57,923 names from the voter rolls, according to The Associated Press.

But before a judge could rule on the injunction on Friday, the Board of Elections said in a Tuesday court filing that it had already purged 38,870 names. Another 11,138 were left on the rolls based on the recommendations of county registrars.

The Washington Post reported that the state would designate 7,300 names as “inactive,” forcing those voters to cast a provisional ballot on election day in November.

Virginia Democratic Party spokesperson Brian Coy told the Post that red flags were raised by the fact that Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) was serving as a the Board of Elections’ legal adviser and was also on the ballot as the Republican Party’s nominee for governor.

Chesterfield County Registrar Lawrence C. Haake III said that he had defied the state and refused to purge any voters because he determined that nearly 10 percent of the names being removed from the rolls were eligible to vote.