Shantae Martin clearly remembers the first time she voted, at the insistence of her grandmother. She cast her first ballot for Barack Obama.
A big surprise recently arrived in the mail; a letter from election officials told Martin, 37, her voter registration had been canceled because she’s a noncitizen.
Martin, a lifelong Virginian, was baffled.
“I was confused, to be honest. I was born and raised in Woodbridge, Virginia, so, you’ve got everything about me and now you’re saying that I’m an alien. Why would you let me vote before and not now?” she asked in an interview with News4.
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Martin is one of 1,600 Virginians whose voter registration was canceled after Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order on Aug. 7 ordering election officials to speed up the process of purging noncitizens form voter rolls.
In many cases, the voters were removed because they checked a box or missed checking a box on a DMV form designating them as a noncitizen.
The Department of Justice and groups representing immigrant communities filed suit and said the purge violated a federal law that bars voter registration cancelations so close to an election.
“So many stories have come out. These are U.S. citizens. They are being prohibited their right to vote,” said Monica Sarmiento, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights.
That’s Martin’s story and why it’s included in the lawsuit.
She got a new driver’s license in the spring and suspects some type of mistake was made.
Both a federal judge and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the purge violated federal law and ordered all 1,600 voters be reinstated.
Virginia asked the U.S. Supreme Court to issue an emergency stay to block the reinstatement of voters, writing, “States are free to systematically remove noncitizens, as well as minors and fictitious persons, at any time, including within 90 days of an election, without running afoul of the [National Voter Registration Act].”
Local election officials are awaiting guidance from the state about how to reinstate the canceled voters as ordered by the court. They reminded voters that same-day registration is offered to all voters in the Commonwealth.
Martin said she hopes her willingness to share her experience will help other voters whose registrations were canceled.
“Somebody gotta expose something. Something’s gotta come out of this,” she said.
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