The Supreme Court's voter purge decision is a warning—unless Harris wins

Watching the conservative majority of the Supreme Court put its thumb on the scale for the GOP just a few days out from the election is not a great feeling. 

But letting Virginia undertake a blatantly illegal voter purge is nothing new for this court. The Republican appointees are big fans of voter suppression and any other moves that help ensure permanent GOP rule, and if Vice President Kamala Harris doesn’t prevail on Tuesday, this will get worse. Of course, Democrats also have to hold the Senate. And enact court reform.

There’s no question that Virginia’s move to throw 1,600 registrations off the voter rolls is illegal under federal law. The National Voter Registration Act bans any systematic removal of ineligible voters within 90 days of an election. This just makes sense. Having states muck around with their voter rolls, even with benign intentions, can throw an election into chaos. 

The systematic removal of ineligible voters isn’t something where local election officials snap their fingers and exactly the right people are taken off the rolls. It’s a lengthy process of inspecting voter registration and DMV information, then contacting voters suspected to be ineligible and giving them time to confirm they are eligible. If a state tries to do this on the fly, the chance eligible voters will get swept up in the last-minute purge is high. Hence, the quiet period is 90 days out. 

But Glenn Youngkin, the fleece-vest-swaddled right-wing governor of Virginia, came up with a way to do it anyway.