Massachusetts AG slammed for not supporting Virginia’s effort to remove non-citizens as voters

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell is being slammed for not supporting Virginia’s successful effort to remove non-citizens from the voter rolls.

The Supreme Court decided last week to keep in place Virginia’s purge of voter registrations which the state has said is aimed at stopping people who are not U.S. citizens from voting.

Beforehand, attorneys general from 26 states, all Republican, supported a brief urging the Supreme Court to grant Virginia’s emergency appeal and “restore the status quo.” Campbell did not sign on as an amici curiae.

Campbell’s critics blasted the Massachusetts attorney general for signaling her support of the Biden-Harris Administration’s lawsuit that argued Virginia election officials were striking names from voter rolls in violation of federal election law.

Paul Diego Craney, spokesman for watchdog Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, blasted Campbell for not supporting Virginia’s effort to clean its voter roll of non-citizens. He accused the attorney general of being a “friend” of the Biden-Harris Administration who doesn’t “stand up” for Bay State residents.

“Non-citizens should not vote in elections and they should not be registered voters,” Craney said in a statement. “There are some who believe they should. Andrea Campbell should break her silence on this matter and protect the integrity of our voter rolls by signing onto the amicus.”

Campbell’s office did not immediately respond to a Herald request for comment on Friday.

A federal judge previously found that Virginia illegally purged more than 1,600 voter registrations over the past two months, an action the feds argued happened after Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order in August.

A federal appeals court had allowed that judge’s order to remain in effect, triggering an emergency appeal from Youngkin’s administration which the high court granted last Wednesday.

Campbell served on the Boston City Council for six years. In her second term, as council president in 2018, she led an effort that looked to allow non-citizens to vote in the city’s municipal elections.

“I want to have conversations about how noncitizens can fully participate and come out of the shadows to do so,” Campbell said at the time. “These residents generate millions in taxes coming from folks who are identified as undocumented, DACA, legal permanent residents as well as having green cards.”

Last year, the City Council approved a home rule petition that granted immigrants with “legal status” the ability to vote in local elections, over concerns that the move could jeopardize their path to attaining full citizenship.

The specter of immigrants voting illegally has been a main part of the political messaging this year from former President Donald Trump and other Republicans, even though such voting is rare in American elections.

The National Voter Registration Act requires a 90-day “quiet period” ahead of elections for the maintenance of voter rolls so that legitimate voters are not removed from the rolls by bureaucratic errors or last-minute mistakes that cannot be quickly corrected.

Only U.S. citizens are eligible to vote in presidential and state elections.

Massachusetts GOP Chairwoman Amy Carnevale told the Herald that she believes “safeguarding elections … should be a priority for all elected officials.”

“It is disappointing that the Massachusetts attorney general would not support the straightforward effort to ensure basic constitutional protections are in place to ensure election integrity,” Carnevale said in a statement on Friday, “and increase confidence that voting is conducted in a safe secure and legal manner.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report