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A public interest legal group and two Virginia jurisdictions have agreed mutually to dismiss lawsuits stemming from the jurisdictions' refusal to allow the inspection of voter rolls for non-citizens.
The agreement was announced Monday by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), an Indiana-based organization that litigates to protect election integrity. The group filed two lawsuits against the city of Manassas and Chesterfield County, Virginia, demanding the jurisdictions release the total number of non-citizens registered to vote in the area.
PILF will receive lists with the total number of non-citizens registered to vote in both Manassas and Chesterfield County.
"These are positive steps toward quantifying the true extent of noncitizen voter registration in Virginia," PILF president and general counsel J. Christian Adams said in a statement. "Washington and Richmond alike are positioned to consider various election integrity reforms and are right to do so. Those discussions deserve precise data like we’ve obtained."
The group said it is preparing new measures for Virginia jurisdictions that still do not allow it to inspect their voter rolls for potential non-citizen voting activity.
Logan Churchwell, communications and research director at PILF, said the developments are a "big win" for transparency of local governments.
"This is a big win for private citizens working to keep their local governments transparent and accountable. Answers to questions like ‘how many non-U.S. citizens registered in my county last year?' should never be forbidden," Churchwell told the Washington Free Beacon. "In wrapping these cases, the remainder of the Commonwealth is on notice that it cannot hide these data from the public. They might as well start printing cancellation reports with non-citizens found on their rolls now."