A coalition of organizations has filed a federal lawsuit against Governor Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares attempting to halt efforts they claim will clean up voter rolls.

The so-called voter purge began in August after Virginia officials reportedly found more than 6,000 noncitizens registered to vote in Virginia.

“This isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue, it’s an American and Virginian issue,” said Youngkin after signing an executive order investigating and eliminating errors in vote rolls. “Every legal vote deserves to be counted without being watered down by illegal votes or inaccurate machines.”

Executive Order 35 not only required an examination of voter rolls, it mandates “a documented chain of custody for paper ballots” and requires that those paper ballots be kept by county clerks for 22 months.

The Coalition for Immigrant Rights, lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, alleges that federal rules prohibit significant changes to voter rolls fewer than 90 days out from an election.

Virginia is not the only state that has discovered illegal or duplicate voter registrations. The discovery of more than 35,000 illegal and improper voter registrations in Arizona resulted in an August lawsuit seeking to audit and purge those voter rolls. Reports from the New York Post found welfare office and other federal agencies improperly registering voters in 46 states.

In March, the New York City Council asked the state’s highest court to award noncitizen immigrants the opportunity to vote.

Virginia is using stale data to illegally purge voters right before the 2024 Election.,” said Bruce V. Spiva, Senior Vice President at Campaign Legal Center. The Center is one of several organizations representing plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “The Department of Elections is engaged in a process that targets qualified US citizens, and we filed the lawsuit to protect voters’ fundamental freedom to vote.”

“Every step in the established list maintenance process is mandated by Virginia law and begins after an individual indicates they are not a citizen,” said Christian Martinez, a spokesperson for Governor Youngkin. “Anyone spreading misinformation about it is either ignoring Virginia law or is trying to undermine it because they want noncitizens to vote.”

The lawsuit is ongoing, and more updates are expected as the case progresses, with no specific hearing date announced yet.