Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, R, is ramping up efforts to crack down on any potential voter fraud ahead of the November presidential election. Youngkin issued an executive order on Wednesday, Aug. 7, to ensure election security protocols.
Part of the executive order mandates that voters can only use paper ballots with a “traceable chain of custody” and the state must use offline counting machines. Youngkin argued that the offline machines offer a more permanent record of votes cast than electronic voting machines.
Other changes issued include the use of Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles data to confirm the identity of voters. The state will now be required to generate a daily file of “non-citizen” transactions. The order mandates that all local registrars alert county prosecutors if an undocumented immigrant is suspected of registering to vote.
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Youngkin’s latest efforts come after the Democratic-controlled Virginia Legislature extended early voting periods and mail-in voting. The governor said that drop boxes for mail-in voting will be monitored 24/7.
Youngkin’s executive order also purged more than 6,300 noncitizens from voter rolls and removed nearly 80,000 deceased voters.
Former President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that “Virginia is taking a strong lead in securing the election in November.”
In 2023, Youngkin’s election team admitted it mistakenly removed around 3,400 qualified voters from the state’s rolls. Election officials acknowledged the error five weeks after early voting had begun for state legislative election, in which Democrats regained control of the General Assembly. Virginia’s attorney general said safeguards are in place to ensure wrongful removal of voters doesn’t occur again.
While Republicans praised Youngkin’s executive order, some Democrats accused the governor of playing politics. Democratic State Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg posted on X that “substantively” Youngkin is “just enforcing laws that already exist.”
