The Biden administration sued Virginia election officials Friday, alleging that they were violating federal law by purging voters flagged as potential noncitizens during the so-called quiet period before an election, when electoral officials are forbidden from undertaking systematic removals of voters from registration rolls.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of a similar Justice Department challenge to a move by Alabama officials to initiate removals of voters from the rolls. Republicans have made the alleged threat of noncitizen voting a central focus of the 2024 campaign, though instances of noncitizens casting ballots are extremely rare.

In court filings Friday, the Justice Department said that Virginia’s purge program, formalized in an August executive order by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, violates the National Voter Registration Act’s requirement that any mass voter removal program be completed no later than 90 days before the election.

Youngkin’s executive order was rolled out exactly 90 days before the election, but the Justice Department is pointing to indications that removals under the order have been ongoing since.

The executive order directed local election officials to initiate removals of any voters who indicated on DMV forms that they were noncitizens. Those voters are sent mailers giving them 14 days to affirm their citizenship or have their registrations canceled.

Earlier iterations of the program caused likely citizens to be removed from the rolls, the DOJ alleged in its lawsuit, pointing to recent comments by a county election official who said that they looked at dozens of voters who had been purged under the program’s protocols and found that many of them had repeatedly affirmed their citizenship, including some with social security numbers.

The lawsuit said that local election officials have no discretion under the program to prevent the cancellation of voters who fail to return the notices even if officials have reason to believe that those voters are US citizens.

In a statement responding to the lawsuit, Youngkin accused the Biden administration of “filing an unprecedented lawsuit” less than 30 days out from the election.

“Virginians - and Americans - will see this for exactly what it is: a desperate attempt to attack the legitimacy of the elections in the Commonwealth, the very crucible of American Democracy,” Youngkin said, while promising to defend the policy.