Texas Weekly Online

Menu
Menu
Facebook Twitter Youtube

Author:

DOJ once OK’d law at center of Youngkin voter roll-culling order feds now suing to block

DOJ once OK’d law at center of Youngkin voter roll-culling order feds now suing to block

The Justice Department once green lit the very election reform law it is now suing Virginia over, a measure aimed at removing noncitizens from the commonwealth’s voter rolls, Fox News Digital has learned. The DOJ filed suit Oct. 11 in Alexandria federal court, alleging the state, its board of elections and Elections Commissioner Susan Beals violated a federal law by carrying out an executive order by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. The order directed municipal and/or state officials to cull names of people who are “unable to verify that they are citizens” to the Department of Motor Vehicles for voter registration purposes. FLURRY OF PRE-ELECTION LEGAL CASES IN NOW ‘STANDARDIZED’ STRATEGY, EXPERTS SAY Youngkin told Fox News Digital the order he issued in August simply followed a rule put in place in 2006 by then-Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine and approved by the DOJ. But with the November election just weeks away, the agency is now saying it violates a provision of the National Voter Registration Act which requires any voter roll maintenance to be completed before the 90-day window prior to an election. “[W]e now know that the Virginia law was reviewed and expressly approved by the DOJ civil rights division,” Youngkin said. “Now, after being applied for 18 years by both Democrat and Republican governors, with just 25 days before the presidential election, the Biden-Harris DOJ sues Virginia: Ensuring Virginia’s voter rolls do not include non-citizens is constitutional, it’s the law in Virginia and it’s common sense.” YOUNGKIN: EDUCATION IS THE BEDROCK OF THE AMERICAN DREAM Youngkin’s order cited Virginia code 24.2-439, requiring government registrars to cancel noncitizens’ voter registrations deemed to have been sought under false pretenses. It also cited Virginia Code 24.2-1019, requiring registrars to immediately notify their county or city prosecutor of such situations. At least 165 election-related lawsuits have already been filed across the country, with the majority focused on issues such as who should be eligible to vote, how ballots are cast and counted, and how to ensure election security and protect against alleged voter fraud. Legal analysts say they doubt that any of these lawsuits will have a protracted impact on the 2024 election and describe the nature of the claims as fairly standard fare, especially during the more than two decades since George W. Bush fended off Al Gore and a mountain of legal challenges to win the 2020 presidential election. The DOJ alleged in its lawsuit that actions resulting from the August order violated the federal 90-day window. However, Virginia officials maintain their actions target self-reported eligibility discrepancies and were not the kind of systematic voter-roll purging that would violate the Quiet Period provision. An internal Richmond memo obtained by Fox News Digital asserted that the established process for removing noncitizens from voter rolls has taken place under Democratic and Republican governors since Kaine, now a senator, signed the law in 2006. The federal Quiet Period cited by DOJ is “not relevant” to the Commonwealth’s policy, the memo stated, adding that individuals also have the two-week window to affirm citizenship before they are stripped from the rolls, so disqualification is not automatic. If a person believes they were wrongly removed from the rolls, Virginia has long offered same-day voter registration at the polls.  In Kaine-era official correspondence obtained by Fox News Digital, an official in the Virginia attorney general’s office wrote the George W. Bush Justice Department asking for approval of the new law. Two months later, in December 2006, an official in the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section wrote back that the U.S. attorney general “does not interpose any objections to the specific changes,” although it added that the feds’ lack of objection does not rule out future injunctions against the law’s enforcement. CLIMATE PROTESTERS INTERRUPT YOUNGKIN’S 9/11 SPEECH The process for removing an ineligible voter described by the law only begins when a person who files for a driver’s license or other government document attests that they are a noncitizen. From there, the Department of Motor Vehicles shares that information with the state Department of Elections, which matches the information with the county or independent city’s registrar. The individual is then notified that they are ineligible and is given 14 days to prove their citizenship. If they do not, they are then notified that they will be removed and are ultimately removed, the source said. Virginia reportedly removed more than 6,300 individuals from their voter rolls since the order was signed. In a statement after the lawsuit was filed, Youngkin called the legal action “unprecedented” and said he was simply assuring a law signed in 2006 by Kaine, who is running for reelection to the U.S. Senate this year, was being followed by counties and independent cities. In a statement following the filing of the DOJ’s lawsuit, Youngkin staunchly defended his order. “Americans will see this for exactly what it is – a desperate attempt to attack the legitimacy of the elections in the Commonwealth, the very crucible of American Democracy,” he said. “I will not stand idly by as this politically motivated action tries to interfere in our elections, period.” However, at the DOJ, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Kristen Clarke said that culling voter registrations this close to election day potentially places qualified voters “in jeopardy of being removed from the rolls and creates the risk of confusion for the electorate.” “Congress adopted the National Voter Registration Act’s Quiet Period restriction to prevent error-prone, eleventh-hour efforts that all too often disenfranchise qualified voters,” Clarke said in a statement. As a result of Youngkin’s order, more than 1,000 registrations in two major Washington, D.C-area counties were canceled, according to local reports. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Loudoun County, a formerly-red bastion now tinted blue due to exurban sprawl from the nation’s capital, culled 98 names. Eastward along US-50, heavily-Democratic Fairfax County removed 985 and is transmitting them to the local prosecutor and Attorney General Jason Miyares to probe any potential lawbreaking, according to

IDF says ‘mission is not over’ until hostages are returned: ‘We will not rest’

IDF says ‘mission is not over’ until hostages are returned: ‘We will not rest’

The Israel Defense Forces said that the war in Gaza is not over following the killing of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ top leader and the mastermind of the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack, and will continue until the hostages taken amid that day’s massacre are returned. IDF Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari released declassified footage showing Sinwar hours before the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, as well as his movements in Gaza as he fled over the past year. Hagari said 101 hostages remain held in Gaza after a year in captivity under “ruthless conditions.”  “Killing Sinwar is the result of a year of operational and intelligence efforts to bring him and other Hamas leaders to justice. Sinwar has been eliminated. But our mission is not over,” Hagari said in a video statement on Saturday. “We will not rest until we bring all our hostages home by any means possible. And we will continue to defend the people of Israel from all threats on all of our borders.”  NETANYAHU PROMISES RETALIATION FOLLOWING ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT BY HEZBOLLAH Hours before the Oct. 7 attacks, during which Hamas terrorists murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis and took hundreds more as hostages into Gaza, Sinwar was captured on video alone hiding his family and equipment, including beds, pillows, food, water and a TV in an underground tunnel network, Hagari said.  NETANYAHU’S DEFIANCE OF BIDEN-HARRIS RAFAH INVASION THREATS LED TO ELIMINATION OF SINWAR, EXPERTS SAY While Sinwar’s location was kept classified while he ordered the attacks from the underground tunnels, “this was a luxury that the people of Gaza did not have as Sinwar always prioritized himself, his money and the Hamas terrorists over the people of Gaza,” Hagari said. “Each step was planned to maximize harm to Israeli and Gazan civilians and to minimize harm to himself and other terrorists.” “Throughout the war that Sinwar started, he continued to hide underneath the people of Gaza,” Hagari said. In February, Hagari said Israeli troops found Sinwar’s underground hideout in Khan Yunis that included money, food, beds, documents, a shower and a kitchen. IDF operations in Khan Yunis forced Sinwar to flee to Rafah last month, Hagari said.  Sinwar’s DNA was recovered on a piece of tissue “a few hundred meters” from a tunnel where six Israeli hostages were executed in Rafah before Sinwar fled again, Hagari said.  “When Sinwar was running for his life and went above the ground, this was the first and last time that he encountered Israeli soldiers in combat,” Hagari said. “Sinwar was eliminated by the IDF in Rafah last Wednesday. I want to emphasize it again: This was the first and last time he encountered Israeli soldiers, and he was eliminated. There were no hostages with Sinwar when he was eliminated.” 

Balance of power: Helene could shift political winds toward Trump, North Carolina lawmakers say

Balance of power: Helene could shift political winds toward Trump, North Carolina lawmakers say

With early voting kicking off in North Carolina just weeks after Hurricane Helene hit, lawmakers there are optimistic that the storm will have little impact on Americans’ access to the ballot box. Not only that – a pair of Tar Heel Republican officials told Fox News Digital they believe former President Donald Trump will ultimately win the state. “I think we’re actually going to see a shocking turnout here,” Rep. Jake Johnson, a member of the state assembly, said on Thursday. “People are really going above and beyond to make sure during this time – especially if they’re frustrated about the way the federal government has handled things.” Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., whose congressional district was hit hard by Helene, said, “Although we’re very busy right now recovering from the storm, we remember what all our lives were like the day before Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina.” SPEAKER JOHNSON RIPS ‘LACK OF LEADERSHIP’ IN BIDEN ADMIN’S HELENE RESPONSE: ‘ALARMED AND DISAPPOINTED’ “Families were struggling. Gas prices were climbing. We saw an open border that seemed to go unnoticed or ignored by the Harris and Biden administration. We saw a record amount of fentanyl coming into our country,” Edwards said.  Helene ravaged the Southeastern U.S. roughly three weeks ago, killing dozens of people across multiple states.  Northwestern North Carolina was hit particularly hard by the storm and the mudslides it caused, with whole communities believed to have been washed away. Concerns about voter access after the storm were compounded by North Carolina’s status as a swing state. Trump won there by less than 2% in 2020, and both his and Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaigns are pouring enormous political resources into the state this year. In a rare show of bipartisanship, however, the Republican-led state legislature worked with Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to pass a sweeping elections package to make it easier for people in affected counties to reach a ballot box ahead of Nov. 5. HURRICANE HELENE: NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENTS FIGHT FOR THEIR SURVIVAL AS BASIC GOODS BECOME SCARCE Edwards, who just last week told Fox News Digital that he was concerned about residents not being able to vote, said he now believes “we’re going to see record turnout at the polls.” The congressman went to an early voting facility himself earlier on Thursday. He spoke with voters he said were “enthused” and “optimistic.” “I was really excited to see the turnout. We had two lanes of traffic down, two different highways with folks coming in to vote,” Edwards said. “There was a lot of energy.” He suggested that the enthusiasm would bode well for Trump, after speaking with voters unhappy with the current state of the country beyond the storm. NORTH CAROLINA COMMUNITY ‘HUNTING’ FOR MISSING TEACHERS IN ‘DEVASTATING’ AFTERMATH OF HURRICANE HELENE Meanwhile, Johnson said it was the storm recovery itself that would push more people to vote for Trump. He said the “lack of response” some rural areas of North Carolina saw immediately after the storm could spur people in those areas to vote Republican. “If you talk to the average person out there, you know, I think they would agree a lot of this was kind of botched from the top-down as far as the federal response,” Johnson said. “I think we’re actually going to be shocked at the level of turnout, how good it’ll be in western North Carolina.” He and Edwards both also credited the state government’s elections legislation for making it easier for those motivated voters to turn out. Notably, the White House’s response to the storm has been praised by other Republican officials, like the governors of Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee.  Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., a conservative, also had rare praise for President Biden’s handling of the situation. North Carolina residents shattered the state’s first-day early voting record on Thursday, fueling optimism among officials that the storm will ultimately have little impact on likely voters. The State Board of Elections said that 353,166 people voted in-person, breaking the same record set in 2020 by roughly 4,500 votes, according to the Charlotte News & Observer. A recent Quinnipiac University poll shows Harris with a slight two-point lead over Trump in North Carolina. The former president led Harris by the same margin last month.