The Biden administration sued Virginia over the state’s effort to remove noncitizens from its voting lists, arguing the move violated a federal law that bars changes to the rolls so close to an election.

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin in August ordered state officials to conduct “daily updates” to remove ineligible voters, including felons and those who are “unable to verify that they are citizens.”

The Justice Department on Friday said that amounts to a formalized cleansing of the voter rolls, which it said violates a 1993 law on voter registration.

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“By canceling voter registrations within 90 days of Election Day, Virginia places qualified voters in jeopardy of being removed from the rolls and creates the risk of confusion for the electorate,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke.

The National Voter Registration Act encourages states to clean their voter rolls but also creates a “quiet period” for the 90 days before a federal election. Taking off individual names of people who request to be removed is considered acceptable, but systemic removals are forbidden.

Mr. Youngkin, in a statement, blasted the case.

“With less than 30 days until the election, the Biden-Harris Department of Justice is filing an unprecedented lawsuit against me and the Commonwealth of Virginia, for appropriately enforcing a 2006 law signed by Democrat Tim Kaine that requires Virginia to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls,” he said.

He said the noncitizens Virginia cleaned from its rolls had previously declared “themselves a non-citizen,” then registered to vote.

“I will not stand idly by as this politically motivated action tries to interfere in our elections, period,” the governor said.

Mr. Youngkin, in announcing his directive in August, said Virginia had removed 6,303 noncitizens from its voter rolls between January 2022 and July 2024.

Republicans argue noncitizen voters are tainting elections. Democrats say noncitizens don’t vote in numbers that would matter.

The federal lawsuit against Virginia follows another one the Justice Department filed against Alabama, which flagged 3,251 names it moved to its inactive voter list on Aug. 13 — 84 days before the election.

Alabama used state records where someone indicated on an unemployment form or an application for a driver’s license or identity card that they weren’t a citizen.

The Justice Department said some 700 of those had come forward by the middle of September and proved they were citizens. Just 106 requested to be fully removed from the rolls — and even then, it’s not clear all of them were noncitizens, the government said.

Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in national elections, though some localities allow it for local issues.