Virginia’s Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin has been surprisingly effective in a state that is quickly becoming as blue as its West Coast counterpart over in California. The fact that he won in 2021 was a surprise itself, and since then he’s just been racking up win after win, giving him an approval rating between 55% and 60%. Much of that has come down to just signing popular bills and with common sense leadership.

He’s back at it with a big executive order announcement that is sure to get the masses behind him with support. Youngkin has signed Executive Order 35 that is designed to prevent anyone who is not a verified U.S. citizen from being able to vote in the upcoming election.

“The Virginia model for Election Security works,” Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin said in an official statement for the press. “This isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue, it’s an American and Virginian issue,” he added.

The executive order effectively codifies election security in the state of Virginia with stricter ballot-handling regulations, improved testing for voting machines prior to deployment, as well as voter roll cleaning measures that would help identify non-citizens on the rolls and subsequently remove them.

This bill is a follow up to an executive order he signed in June that laid the ground work for making the removal of deceased registered voters from the rolls quicker and easier than ever before.

“Every legal vote deserves to be counted without being watered down by illegal votes or inaccurate machines. In Virginia, we don’t play games and our model for election security is working,” Mr. Youngkin had to say about Executive Order 35 after its signing.

The Virginia Attorney General, Jason Miyares, shared online on X (also known as Twitter) that there were thousands of noncitizens who he removed from the voter rolls since he started his AG administration in the coastal state.

6,303.

That's the number of noncitizens identified and removed from Virginia's voting rolls under our watch.

I'm proud of my office's work to help ensure election integrity. https://t.co/ZX1W9SUBvU

— Jason Miyares (@JasonMiyaresVA) August 7, 2024

It would be tempting to say that these numbers don’t matter until you realize that a number of states in the 2020 election were decided by razor thin margins where just a few thousand vote swing changes the result of the entire election. Preventing any bad actors is only a good thing. You may remember that in the 2000 election, Florida was decided by 537 votes.

Not only that, but election security is supremely popular with the vast majority of the American people. Even though the debates about security of previous elections rage, the fact remains that the American people do want better peace of mind that the elections can be trusted by everyone and not just media talking heads.

Election Security Popular With Everyone, Regardless Of Political Affiliation

According to Pew Research, in 2018, 32 percent of Americans indicated that they believed American citizens should have to register well in advance of an election to be able to vote. Just three years later in 2021, Pew Research reports that this number shot up to 39 percent.

While Democrat sentiment on voter registration and election security has not substantially changed since 2018, according to their data, Republican and independent opinions have. Around two thirds of Republican voters say that the election process would be less secure if there were laws passed to make it even easier to vote.

More than a dozen state legislatures have passed election security bills that were signed into law by their presiding governors, with public opinion of these polls largely being far more bipartisan than the vast majority of other hot button issues.

Simply put, Americans want to know that if they vote by mail, in person with a paper ballot, in person with a computer, or with any of the other methods available for those who need it, their vote will count and will matter. The only way you accomplish that is if you prove elections are free and fair and you can replicate count results scientifically.

Do you approve of this executive order from Virginia’s Governor Glenn Youngkin? Let us know what you think in the comments below.