As part of their embarrassing smear campaign against Republicans worried about the integrity of America’s elections, legacy media have twisted themselves into pretzels trying to convince the country that foreign nationals interfering in the U.S. electoral system is a nonexistent problem.

So-called “journalists” and their Democrat political allies regularly claim concerns about noncitizens registering ahead of and voting in the 2024 election are baseless because it’s already illegal for foreigners to cast ballots in federal contests. Of course, these self-professed “experts” on “misinformation” conveniently decline to mention that there’s no enforcement mechanism to prevent this from happening; or that numerous Democrat-run cities have granted illegal aliens the ability to vote in municipal races.

Yet, for all their hyperbolic grandstanding and opposition to ensuring only eligible Americans have a say in U.S. elections, Democrats have no legs left to stand on when it’s revealed that foreign nationals are, in fact, registering to vote.

In an executive order directing state agencies to undertake election security efforts ahead of the November election, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin revealed on Wednesday that the commonwealth’s Department of Elections (ELECT) has removed more than 6,300 noncitizens from its voter rolls since his administration took office.

“All data collected by the DMV that identifies noncitizens is shared with ELECT, which uses it to scrub existing voter rolls and remove noncitizens who may have purposefully or accidentally registered to vote,” Youngkin wrote. “According to data from ELECT, between January 2022 and July 2024, records indicate we removed 6,303 noncitizens from the voter rolls.”

Virginia is one of only three states to require individuals “provide their full 9-digit Social Security number” when registering to vote, according to Youngkin.

In his order, the GOP governor instructed ELECT Commissioner Susan Beals to provide him with annual confirmation that the state’s proper election protocols are “in place” and local registrars are fully trained on “these critical procedures.” This includes rules governing ballot deadlines, ballot chain of custody, tabulation machines, and verifying election results to ensure accuracy.

Beals must also ensure ELECT is updating Virginia’s voter rolls “daily” and removing ineligible registrants, including those who have moved out of state, died, are felons, or are “individuals who are unable to verify that they are citizens.”

Youngkin further directed the state DMV to “expedite the interagency data-sharing with [ELECT] of noncitizens by generating a daily file of all noncitizen transactions, including addresses and documents.” As noted by the governor, registrars are required by Virginia law to cancel the registration of an individual who registered to vote “by falsely claiming that they are a citizen,” and must report such cases to their local commonwealth’s attorney.

“Our election security model is designed to prevent illegal votes and guarantee legal votes are accurately counted,” Youngkin wrote. “However, security procedures can only be as strong as the state and federal law which governs voting. Further strengthening of Virginia’s election security system will rely on strengthening state and federal law.”

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood