Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky defends voter purges weeks before Election Day

Voting rights experts, immigration advocates, and the Department of Justice have opposed the moves, which they argue are illegal under federal law

Written by John Knefel

Published

The Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky defended states that have carried out large-scale purges of their voter rolls within 90 days of an election under the pretext of preventing widespread noncitizen voting. Voting rights experts, immigration advocates, and the Department of Justice have opposed the moves, which they argue are illegal under federal law.

Heritage is the lead organizer of Project 2025, a sweeping plan to provide policy and staffing to a second Donald Trump administration that also has significant overlap with the broader election denial movement. Von Spakovsky is a longtime promoter of baseless and debunked claims of widespread voter fraud.

In a blog published Wednesday, von Spakovsky wrote:

States have both a constitutional and statutory right—if not an obligation—to remove aliens who are ineligible to vote in both federal and state elections from their voter registration rolls. The 90-day deadline for systematic removal programs applies only to removing eligible registrants who have changed their residence. It does not apply to aliens who were never eligible to register in the first place, just as it does not apply to minors, fictitious registrations, fraudulent registrations of any kind, decedents, felons, and mentally incompetent individuals. There is nothing in the National Voter Registration Act to the contrary.

Contrary to von Spakovsky’s claims, voting rights experts and immigration advocates argue that the National Voter Registration Act prevents any “systematic” voter purges within 90 days of an election. 

As the Brennan Center, which supports expanding voting access, wrote in a one-page fact sheet: “The National Voter Registration Act (‘NVRA’) requires systematic purges to be complete 90 days before a federal election.” 

Similarly, Democracy Docket — which tracks right-wing attacks on voting rights — wrote that the NVRA “mandates that states must complete their voter roll maintenance program (which entails systemic removals of voters) no later than 90 days before an election, though there are certain exceptions such as if a person has died or requested their removal.”

The Justice Department has sued both Virginia and Alabama over their attempts to purge their voter rolls — purportedly conducted to combat the risk of widespread noncitizen voting, which experts agree is a myth.

The American Immigration Council’s Aaron Reichlin-Melnick has repeatedly debunked arguments similar to those made by von Spakovsky, highlighting that the Alabama purges improperly removed U.S. citizens.

Von Spakovsky recently criticized a federal judge who ordered that Georgia election officials had to certify an election, and he has also baselessly fearmongered about voter fraud in Michigan.