CNN
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The Supreme Court this week revived Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s effort to purge 1,600 people he says are suspected noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls, using department records Motor Vehicles.

But critics say the practice is haphazard since those DMV records may not be up to date and can result in U.S. citizens being removed from the voter rolls.

CNN obtained access to the list of Virginia voters who were expunged and called more than 100. We found a variety of U.S. citizens and non-citizens, some of whom knew they had been expunged while d Others, who had not yet voted, learned the news from CNN.

Non-citizens CNN spoke with said they had no plans to vote and some didn’t even know how they were registered.

Documented cases of non-citizen voting are extremely rare. A recent Georgia audit of the 8.2 million people on its rolls found that only 20 non-citizens were registered — only nine of whom had voted.

“Governor Youngkin has been clear: Any eligible Virginia citizen who wants to vote can do so by registering on the same day up until Election Day – that’s what our law says,” the spokesperson said. Youngkin, Christian Martinez.

An “ultimate security,” Martinez added, is the ability for residents to register the same day to vote early or on Election Day.

Here’s what some voters told CNN about their experiences:

Rachel Xu, 18, a student at George Mason University, says she became a citizen a year ago. She didn’t know she had been removed from the state’s voter rolls until she was contacted by CNN. She told CNN that she moved to the United States from China with her family after her father got a job with the U.S. government.

“I’m not very excited about this election, but it’s my right to vote and it shouldn’t be taken away from me,” she said.

Xu said she plans to re-register and vote for Trump.

Nadra Wilson was also listed as a non-citizen and was purged from Virginia’s voter rolls. Wilson told CNN that she was born in the United States: “I was born in Brooklyn, New York. » The 57-year-old, whose home is empty, says she has been voting in Virginia without any problems since 2015. She didn’t know why she was purged from the voting rolls.

Wilson was able to re-register and she said she voted this week, “but I’m very concerned that this happened.”

Fatima Bashir is an 18-year-old student studying cybersecurity at Northern Virginia College. She also didn’t realize she had been purged from Virginia’s voter rolls until she received a call from CNN. “I’m surprised right now. Why did they take me? Bashir said she was born in Pakistan but became a U.S. citizen a year ago. She plans to vote in this election for the first time. She said she was still undecided but “I have the right to vote.”

Saule Bohoney was also removed from Virginia’s voter rolls. She is a naturalized citizen born in Central Asia. She learned she had been removed from Virginia’s voter rolls after receiving a letter from the state informing her.

Bohoney told CNN that she voted in the 2020 election and is still undecided, but has not yet been able to re-register, although she plans to do so.

“I have two kids and a full-time job, and I just haven’t had time to address this,” she said. “I was disappointed that this happened. I am a professional working for a federal intelligence agency. So it seemed stupid to me that I was fired.

In Alexandria, Virginia, Abdullah Al Mosawa, 21, learned about Virginia’s voter purge program through a TikTok. He did his own research and realized he was one of more than 1,000 people who had been removed from the state’s voter rolls.

“I wouldn’t say it feels good,” Al Mosawa said, after learning he was purged because state authorities wrongly suspected him of being a non-citizen.

Al Mosawa grew up in Yemen and became a U.S. citizen in 2018. This would be his first time voting in a U.S. election.

Because his initial voter registration was purged, Al Mosawa said he plans to re-register in order to vote for his candidate, Green Party candidate Jill Stein. “Not Trump, of course.”

“No matter who you vote for, their party still controls them,” he said. “So I tried to choose someone who’s a little different.”

As a busy business owner, he said it was confusing and difficult to have to register again. But as a young person, he said he was excited to vote and “it’s time to think about these issues and (the election).”

Ryan Snow, an attorney for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and a member of the group of attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the case, said voting rights groups are now focusing on voters who were purged to confirm their eligibility and provide them with information on how to use the same-day registration process.