The Department of Justice says it will monitor voting in six Virginia localities on Election Day to ensure federal laws are being followed.
The agency posted a press release listing 86 individual localities in 27 states it plans to track — including Hanover and Henrico counties. Election activities in Loudoun and Prince William counties, as well as the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park, will also be monitored.
DOJ said it “regularly deploys its staff” to monitor elections.
On Saturday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin commented from his personal social media account on the agency’s announcement.
“The DOJ—and all election observers—must follow Virginia law: no entry into voting areas, communication only with election officials, and pre-registration with local registrars,” he wrote on X. “With paper ballots, counting machines, not voting machines, and clean voter rolls backed by this week’s Supreme Court ruling, Virginia’s elections are secure. Virginians, go vote!”
While some of the Virginia localities on the DOJ list overlap with major population centers in Central and Northern Virginia, David Ramadan — a George Mason University professor and former Republican state delegate — doesn’t see a pattern. He called the selection of localities “purely random” and added this isn’t “something new that the Department of Justice does.”
The DOJ’s announcement was made days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state-led voter removals in Virginia can stand, keeping 1,600 people off the rolls for being suspected noncitizens. Youngkin has said the removals are to prohibit noncitizen voting, a contested issue Republicans nationwide have referenced ahead of Election Day.
As VPM News previously reported, Virginia court records don’t show any suspected noncitizens being charged with illegally voting in the past 20 years — and the issue has been dismissed by organizations as politically divergent as the Brennan Center for Justice and the CATO Institute.
“That whole 1,600-people is really a nothingburger that was put together by the governor to get attention,” Ramadan said. “I do know the number in Loudoun, it's only 90 voters. So, 90 voters in Loudoun County are not going to make a change on any election happening this year.”
In court documents VPM News analyzed, 102 voter registrations in Loudoun have been canceled since Youngkin ordered enhanced list maintenance in August. With a population of 433,929, Loudoun experienced 23.5 cancellations per 100,000 residents — the third-highest rate in the commonwealth.
The DOJ has asked that if people encounter issues while voting to call 800-253-3931 or visit the Civil Rights Division's website. Voters with disabilities who experience difficulty with polls access can call the division’s ADA Information Hotline at 800-514-0301or 833-610-1264 (TTY), or visit ada.gov.
