民权领袖认为，最高法院周三宣布的一项决定可能会为选举后的挑战奠定基础。
高等法院保守派多数裁定阻止联邦法官的一项命令，该命令将恢复约1600人在弗吉尼亚州的登记选民人数。
这些人是根据州长格伦·扬金(Glenn Youngkin)的行政命令被除名的，该命令要求每天从该州的选民名单中清除自我认定的非公民。
8月7日的行政命令引起了移民和民权组织的诉讼，以及司法部所有这些都声称它违反了1993年全国投票权法案规定的90天静默期。
现在最高法院无符号订单这些支持者暗示，弗吉尼亚很可能是煤矿里的金丝雀，预示着旨在削弱投票权的更广泛的努力。
达蒙·休伊特(Damon Hewitt)是无党派法律下公民权利律师委员会(Civil Rights Under Law)的主席兼执行主任，他领导了其中一项挑战，他告诉美国广播公司新闻，“这些活动没有一项是随机的。这一切都是精心策划的，但也是有目的的。”
“他们试图真正测试法院的州和联邦法院实际执行NVRA的胃口的界限，”他补充说。
扬金对最高法院的决定表示庆祝，称这是“保护美国公民基本权利的关键斗争”的胜利。
杨金说:“干净的选民名单是我们为确保选举公平而采取的综合措施的重要组成部分。”。
弗吉尼亚州司法部长杰森·米亚雷斯称之为“常识的胜利”，对“弗吉尼亚公民应该决定弗吉尼亚选举的想法”至关重要
民权组织认为，对非公民投票的关注是错误的。
“非合法公民投票的想法绝对是一个神话。这不是真的，”全美有色人种协进会高级副总法律顾问安东尼·p·阿什顿说。“这不是真的。”
“这一直是一个主题，现在已经表达了以后的叙事试图破坏民主，破坏对民主进程的信心，”他补充说。
根据法律下公民权利律师委员会的诉讼律师瑞安·斯诺(Ryan Snow)的说法，在清洗中被清除的选民之一是一名入籍公民，他在过去30年里一直在选举中投票。
其他倡导者说，包括一名波多黎各裔选民在内的几名美国公民也被除名。
美国地区法官帕特里夏·托利弗·贾尔斯(Patricia Tolliver Giles)的复职令周三被最高法院驳回，她在裁决中承认每个被清除的选民的实际公民身份不确定，问道，“还有多少人?”
汉斯·冯·斯帕科夫斯基，遗产公司的经理选举法律改革倡议，高级法律研究员和前联邦选举委员会委员，称高等法院的举动是“选举诚信的重大胜利。”
“各州应该将最高法院的这一行动视为确认，他们可以清理他们的选民名册，”他补充说。“这也应该向DOJ发出信号，他们需要调查和起诉这些外国人，而不是试图迫使弗吉尼亚州或其他任何州违反联邦法律，将他们登记在选民名单上。”
然而，全美有色人种协进会总统德里克·约翰逊批评了这些诉讼，称之为“破坏公众对整个民主进程的信心”
“这里的选民清洗是试图压制和恐吓选民的典型例子，”他说。“那些充斥着英联邦案件的虚假指控背后的人试图通过发出排外和种族主义的狗哨来吓唬那些他们认为是他们的选民。”
在全国范围内，民权领袖自2020年以来一直在发出信号，有色人种选民，特别是黑人选民，更有可能成为选民挑战的目标，特别是在佐治亚州、宾夕法尼亚州、密歇根州和威斯康星州等战场州。
民权投票权项目律师委员会的联合主任埃兹拉·罗森博格告诉美国广播公司新闻，选民在诸如富尔顿和迪卡尔布等拥有大量黑人人口的佐治亚州各县的挑战并非巧合。
罗森博格说:“已经有数十起、数十起、数十起大规模选民质疑诉讼被提起，它们几乎都是在同一时间提起的，大约在选举前30天左右，所依据的信息甚至是根据它们在那之前数月、数月、数月的诉状提出的。”。
“你必须问问自己，如果这对选举和诚信如此重要，他们为什么要等到最后一刻?”他在回答之前问道:“他们真正玩的是支持一个新的，新的大谎言，如果他们需要的话。”
全美有色人种协进会总法律顾问Janette McCarthy-Wallace在一份声明中告诉ABC新闻，这个国家最古老的民权组织正在全美10场法律战中为自由公平的选举而斗争
麦卡锡-华莱士说:“毫无疑问，在全国范围内，某些州官员正试图制造一个法律基础，他们将利用这个基础来证明选举期间和选举后选举欺诈的虚假指控是正确的。”
她发誓要在选举后继续斗争，并补充说，“当法律被操纵来帮助颠覆民主和压制我们社区的声音时，我们不能袖手旁观。”
倡导者警告说，他们担心最高法院的裁决会在弗吉尼亚州和全国范围内的选民投票时造成混乱。
NYU法学院布伦南司法中心负责民主事务的副主席温迪·魏泽警告说，“最高法院给选举注入了混乱。这一延期将导致合格的弗吉尼亚公民在选举前从选民名单中被清除——这一切都是为阴谋论服务的。”
然而，在总统选举中，弗吉尼亚州的选民首次可以在11月5日之前进行当天登记。这意味着那些认为自己被不当罢免的选民可以在选举日投临时票。
甚至杨金也赞同这种方法。
“我们有最终的保障，那就是你可以来，你可以当天登记，投临时票，”州长说。“因此，没有人被排除在投票谁是美国和弗吉尼亚州的公民。”
Civil rights groups warn of potential voter suppression ahead of Election Day
Civil rights leaders believe that a decision handed down by the Supreme Court on Wednesday could lay the framework for post-election challenges.
The high court's conservative majority ruled to block an order from a federal judge that would have reinstated some 1,600 individuals to Virginia's registered voter count.
Those individuals were removed in accordance with an executive order by Gov. Glenn Youngkin that required the daily purge of self-identified noncitizens from the state's voter rolls.
The Aug. 7 executive order brought lawsuits from immigration and civil rights groups,as well as the Justice Department, all of which alleged that it violated the 90-day quiet period mandated by the 1993 National Voting Rights Act.
Now that the Supreme Court'sunsigned orderhas allowed the purging to proceed, those advocates have implied that Virginia may very well be a canary in a coal mine, foreshadowing broader efforts aimed at undermining voting rights.
Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the nonpartisan Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which led one of the challenges, told ABC News, “None of this activity is random. It's all highly orchestrated, but it's also orchestrated with a purpose.”
“They're trying to really test the bounds of the court's state and federal courts appetite for actually enforcing the NVRA,” he added.
Youngkin celebrated the Supreme Court's decision, calling it a win in the “critical fight to protect the fundamental rights of U.S. citizens.”
“Clean voter rolls are one important part of a comprehensive approach we are taking to ensure the fairness of our elections,” Youngkin said.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares called it “a win for common sense” and essential to "this idea that Virginia citizens should be deciding Virginia elections.”
Civil rights groups have argued that the focus on noncitizens voting is a false narrative.
“The idea of people who are not legal citizens voting is an absolute myth. It is not true," said NAACP Senior Associate General Counsel Anthony P. Ashton. "It is not true."
"This has been a theme that has been expressed now for a later narrative to try to undermine democracy, undermine faith in the democratic process," he added.
One of the voters removed in the purge was a naturalized citizen who had voted in elections for the past 30 years, according to Ryan Snow, a litigator with Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Other advocates have said that several U.S. citizens, including a Puerto Rican-born voter, were also removed.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles, whose reinstatement order was blocked Wednesday by the Supreme Court, acknowledged the uncertainty of each purged voter's actual citizenship status in her ruling, asking, “How many more are there?”
Hans von Spakovsky, manager of Heritage’sElectionLaw Reform Initiative, senior legal fellow and former commissioner on the Federal Election Commission, called the high court's move “a significant victory for election integrity.”
“States should take this action from the Supreme Court as confirmation that they can clean up their voter rolls," he added. "It should also signal to DOJ that they need to investigate and prosecute these aliens, not try to force Virginia or any other state to keep them registered in voter rolls in violation of federal law."
NAACP President Derrick Johnson, however, criticized the lawsuits, calling them an effort to “undermine the public's confidence in the entire democratic process.”
"The voter purges here are textbook examples of attempted voter suppression and intimidation," he said. "Those behind the false allegations that saturate the commonwealth's case seek to frighten those they consider their constituents by sounding xenophobic and racist dog whistles."
Nationally, civil rights leaders have been signaling since 2020 that voters of color, particularly black voters, are more likely to become targets of voter challenges, especially in battleground states like Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Ezra Rosenberg, co-director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Voting Rights Project, told ABC News that voter challenges in Georgia counties such as Fulton and DeKalb, which have large Black populations, were no coincidence.
“There have been these dozens and dozens and dozens of mass voter challenge suits that were filed, and they were all filed just about the same time, around 30 days or so before the election, based upon information that even according to the pleadings they had for months and months and months before that,” Rosenberg said.
“You have to ask yourself, if this is so important for election and integrity purposes, why do they wait until the last minute?” he asked, before answering: “What they're really playing for is supporting a new, new big lie, if they need that.”
NAACP General Counsel Janette McCarthy-Wallace told ABC News in a statement that the nation’s oldest civil rights organization is fighting for free and fair elections in 10 legal battles across the U.S.
“Make no mistake -- across the country, certain state officials are trying to manufacture a legal foundation that they will use to justify false claims of election fraud during and after the election,” McCarthy-Wallace said.
She vowed to keep fighting post-election, adding, “We cannot stand idly by as the law is manipulated to help subvert democracy and silence the voices of our communities.”
Advocates warned that they were concerned about the Supreme Court ruling causing confusion as voters cast ballots in Virginia -- and nationwide.
Wendy Weiser, vice president for democracy at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, warned, “The Supreme Court has injected confusion into the election. This stay will cause eligible Virginia citizens to be purged from voter rolls just before the election — all in service of a conspiracy theory.”
However, for the first time in a presidential election, Virginia voters can do same-day registration through Nov. 5. This means that voters who believe that they were improperly removed would be able to cast a provisional ballot on Election Day.
Even Youngkin endorsed the approach.
“We do have the ultimate safeguard, which is you can come day of, and you can register same day and cast a provisional ballot," the governor said. "And therefore no one is being precluded from voting who is a citizen in the United States and in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
