AP Photo/Cliff Owen

On Friday, a Virginia judge ruled that Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s recent purge of close to two thousand voters from state rolls—within 90 days of November’s election—was illegal. Now, with that election less than two weeks away, the state must reinstate all 1,600 revoked registrations.

Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Patricia Giles found that Youngkin’s purge violated the National Voter Registration Act, a federal law that prevents states from removing ineligible voters from the rolls within 90 days of the election.

Last August, Youngkin issued an executive order that included several “ballot security” measures, including the authority to revoke thousands of Virginians’ voter registrations on the suspicion that they were not US citizens—a notion rooted in a GOP conspiracy theory........

© Mother Jones