Virginia
Virginia law at center of voter rolls controversy was once a bipartisan issue – WTOP News
The Virginia law allowing election officials to remove people from voter rolls if they are listed as noncitizens has led to controversy during this election cycle, but it was once a politically neutral issue.
The Virginia law allowing election officials to remove people from voter rolls if they are listed as noncitizens has led to controversy during this election cycle, but it was once a politically neutral issue.
John Aughenbaugh, a political science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, said the law was championed by Ken Cuccinelli, who was then a Republican state senator and later became attorney general.
It was signed into law in 2006 by Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine.
“It was basically a bipartisan measure,” Aughenbaugh said.
Even though the law has been on the books for nearly 20 years, this is the first time it has become so contentious.
“In part, the reason why it became an issue is that the Biden administration became very skeptical of states purging their voter rolls in the aftermath of what Georgia did after the 2020 presidential election,” Aughenbaugh said.
A sweeping rewrite of Georgia’s election rules was signed into law in 2021 by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, making numerous changes to how elections are administered, including adding a new photo ID requirement for voting absentee by mail.
Republican supporters said the law was needed to restore confidence in Georgia’s elections. But Democrats said it would restrict voting access, especially for voters of color.
“President Biden gave an infamous speech where he said that his Justice Department would not allow states like Georgia to reinstitute Jim Crow laws,” Aughenbaugh said. “This has been a point of emphasis for the Biden administration.”
The Justice Department filed a suit against Virginia earlier this month, arguing that making large-scale changes to voter rolls within 90 days of an election was against federal regulations.
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin and his administration took the case all the way to the Supreme Court, which ultimately sided with Youngkin on Wednesday.
Aughenbaugh said Youngkin’s administration “didn’t do anything unusual” in implementing the law.
What was unusual, according to Aughenbaugh, was Youngkin publicly drawing attention to the law and issuing an executive order “codifying” it exactly 90 days before this year’s election.
“If it wasn’t issued as an executive order and it didn’t get publicized, then perhaps it wouldn’t have caught the attention of the Biden administration,” Aughenbaugh said.
Aughenbaugh said state lawmakers could potentially make changes to the law, like having it paused within 90 days of an election, in order to prevent such a controversy in the future.
“I think the General Assembly should give some consideration to revising the law to avoid this kind of conflict,” Aughenbaugh said. “This is completely unnecessary.”
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Next week’s ACC championship game won’t include the league’s best team. It will instead feature a doomsday scenario that could leave the power conference out of the College Football Playoff entirely.
First, the matchup: No. 18 Virginia vs. unranked Duke. The Cavaliers (10-2, 7-1 ACC) easily earned their spot with Saturday night’s 27-7 triumph over Virginia Tech. J’Mari Taylor rushed for a touchdown and threw for another in the first half, and the defense forced seven three-and-outs and snagged two interceptions in the Hokies’ first 10 drives to put the Cavaliers in the conference title game for the first time since 2019.
“This is what we came here for,” Cavaliers head coach Tony Elliott said on the ESPN broadcast. “Just super proud of the staff, super proud of the players, but we have four more quarters.”
Those four quarters are, surprisingly, against Duke, which ended up atop a log jam of five other teams with two conference losses (joining Miami, Pitt, SMU, Georgia Tech) … even though the Blue Devils were the only one unranked by the CFP selection committee.
Duke’s first appearance in the ACC championship since 2013 opens the door for a disastrous scenario for the conference. The CFP’s protocol does not guarantee a bid to every Power 4 conference. Rather, it reserves a spot for the five top conference champions, regardless of their league. Duke’s resume includes defeats against UConn, Illinois and Tulane. If the Blue Devils beat Virginia, the CFP selection committee could snub the ACC’s champion in favor of whoever wins the American Conference (Tulane or North Texas) and James Madison (11-1 entering next week’s Sun Belt championship) for the fourth and fifth automatic bids. The Mountain West’s champion (San Diego State, New Mexico, Boise State or UNLV) could also have a case.
The Athletic’s Playoff projection model gives Duke a 47 percent chance of winning the ACC title game, but just a 7 percent chance of making the Playoff — while James Madison has a 47 percent chance.
No. 12 Miami is regarded as the ACC’s top team, but losses to SMU and Louisville put the Hurricanes in a complicated web of tiebreakers despite Saturday’s 38-7 triumph at No. 22 Pitt.
The No. 21 Mustangs (8-4, 6-2) were in the best position to join Virginia in Charlotte, N.C., next week. All they had to do was beat a 6-5 Cal team led by interim coach Nick Rolovich to play for the ACC title for a second consecutive year.
They could not. SMU lost a wild game 38-35 on the road despite making a furious comeback. The Mustangs trailed by 17 early in the fourth quarter but scored touchdowns on four consecutive drives to take the lead with 2:22 to go. Cal’s standout freshman quarterback, Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, led the Golden Bears on a 75-yard drive, and Kendrick Raphael twisted out of a would-be tackle and past the goal line for the winning score with 43 seconds remaining. SMU missed a 52-yard field goal in the closing seconds, sealing the loss.
CAL COMPLETES THE UPSET OVER SMU‼️ pic.twitter.com/8r9VenWZ2o
— ACC Network (@accnetwork) November 30, 2025
The Mustangs’ defeat gave the final spot to Duke, which did its part Saturday afternoon with a 49-32 win over Wake Forest. The Blue Devils (7-5, 6-2) recovered three fumbles, and quarterback Darian Mensah threw for two touchdowns to pass Maalik Murphy for the Blue Devils’ single-season record (28). Mensah also rushed for a touchdown.
Regardless of who wins the ACC, Miami would still have a shot at making the field as an at-large team. That bubble is crowded, too, however, as the Hurricanes compete against the likes of Notre Dame (which Miami beat), Alabama, BYU and Texas.
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The 5th-ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders look to stay the course to make a national title run with a schedule that takes them to Morgantown to face the West Virginia Mountaineers in their season finale. The game is scheduled to start at noon ET with TV coverage on ESPN and streaming on-demand.
How to watch #5 Texas Tech vs. West Virginia on TV and stream without cable:
- When: Saturday, Nov. 29 at noon ET
- Where: Milan Puskar Stadium, Morgantown, W.Va.
- TV channel: ESPN
- Streaming on: FuboTV (free trial) | DirecTV (free trial) | SlingTV (low intro rate) | ESPN Unlimited ($29.99/mo.)
#5 Texas Tech vs. West Virginia: The matchup
Texas Tech has just one little hiccup to this point in its campaign, a 26-22 road loss to then-unranked Arizona State on Oct. 18, but has otherwise looked the part of a contender with an offense that ranks No. 3 nationally in scoring (42.6 ppg) and a defense that ranks No. 4 in the same category (12.3 ppg). Not only that, but the Red Raiders are No. 3 in turnover margin and No. 1 defending the run, showing few statistical weaknesses in their bid to win the Big 12 and secure prime position in the playoff bracket.
- See also: College football coverage on PennLive
Meanwhile, West Virginia is showing its teeth late in the season after a five-game losing streak mid-season derailed coach Rich Rodriguez’s reunion season in Morgantown. The Mountaineers are 4-7 overall with a surprising early win over current No. 22 Pitt (31-24) and road win more recently over then-No. 22 Houston (45-35) on Nov. 1 that they followed with a 29-22 win over Deion Sanders and Colorado. The possibility of a three-game win streak slipped away last weekend in Tempe with a 25-23 loss to Arizona State.
#5 Texas Tech vs. West Virginia: Know your live streams
FuboTV (free trial): Offers most extensive package of live sports with rates competitive with DirecTV. The FuboTV Pro Package ($54.99) includes ESPN Unlimited, but the Elite with Sports Plus package ($74.99) is required for NFL Red Zone. Monthly rates rise to $84.99 and $104.99 after that.
DirecTV (free trial): DirecTV offers a 5-day free trial and $49.99 first month ($89.99 after) with a current offer for $40 off the first full month. DirecTV’s Entertainment package ($49.99) carries ESPN Unlimited and NFL Red Zone on its channel lineup.
SlingTV (low intro rate): Full month of streaming runs as low as $45.99 with day passes available for 24 hours ($4.99), Friday-Sunday ($9.99) and 7-day access ($14.99). Most noteworthy omission is CBS, which carries college football and NFL games.
ESPN Unlimited ($29.99 bundle): ESPN has a new, standalone package that includes ABC broadcasts, all of ESPN’s sports channels, and access to ESPN+. For a limited time, ESPN can be bundled with Disney Plus and Hulu for $29.99 per month. This package is included free in select FuboTV and DirecTV plans, along with other TV providers.
West Virginia already has two tight ends committed in the 2026 recruiting class, but they may be in play for another. Recently, tight ends coach Michael Nysewander extended an offer to Taimane Purcell (6’3″, 225 lbs), who is currently committed to Cal.
The Golden Bears recently fired their head coach, Justin Wilcox, and with some uncertainty regarding his replacement, their recruiting class will be targeted by many across the country, including Purcell.
Prior to making a verbal pledge to Cal, Purcell picked up offers from the likes of Arizona, Arizona State, Auburn, BYU, Florida, Hawai’i, Michigan State, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Oregon State, San Diego State, SMU, Stanford, Tennessee, UCF, UCLA, UNLV, USC, and Utah.
West Virginia will be losing Grayson Barnes, Jacob Barrick, and Greg Genross to graduation, so that room is going to need a few additions this offseason, beyond current commits Sam Hamilton and Kade Bush. If they are unable to flip Purcell, I think it’s safe to assume that will be on their wish list for the transfer portal.
Purcell, does however, seem open to sticking it out with Cal, showing support for interim head coach Nick Rolovich on social media.
QB: Jyron Hughley, Wyatt Brown
RB: SirPaul Cheeks, Christopher Talley, Martavious Boswell
WR: Robert Oliver, Malachi Thompson, Charlie Hanafin, Keon Hutchins, Landon Drumm
TE: Sam Hamilton, Kade Bush
OL: Kevin Brown, Lamarcus Dillard, Rhett Morris, Camden Goforth, Aidan Woods
DL: Cameron Mallory
EDGE: Noah Tishendorf, Carter Kessler, Kamdon Gillespie
LB: Antoine Sharp, Miles Khatri, Cam Dwyer, Caleb Gordon
CB: Vincent Smith, Emari Peterson, Simaj Hill, Makhi Boone
S: Emory Snyder, Rickey Giles, Jayden Ballard
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