Gov. Youngkin’s Executive Order 53 is the latest in a pattern of discriminatory voter roll purges

RICHMOND, Va. – In response to Gov. Youngkin’s executive order calling for Virginia election officials to purge Virginia voter rolls for the third year in a row, ACLU of Virginia Policy Director Chris Kaiser released the following statement:

“Gov. Youngkin’s Executive Order 53 is not about keeping Virginia elections fair: it’s about wrongfully purging eligible voters and scapegoating Virginia’s immigrant communities. This governor seems to be making a habit of using error-prone databases to purge Virginia’s voter rolls close to Virginia elections – as his administration did in both 2023 and 2024 – and this administration’s actions have already disenfranchised thousands of eligible citizens in the name of supposed ‘voter fraud’ that the data just doesn’t bear out. Executive orders like this one make second-class citizens out of naturalized citizens, waste taxpayer dollars, and expose the administration’s actual goal for what it is: to erect barriers to voting, not facilitate free and fair Virginia elections."