Virginia’s Democratic Congressional delegation has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate reports that eligible Virginia voters were removed from the voter rolls by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration, and to determine whether any violations of the Voting Rights Act or other federal laws were committed.

The request was made in a letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Oct. 6, and was signed by U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and Reps. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, Jennifer McClellan, Abigail Spanberger, Donald Beyer, Jennifer Wexton and Gerry Connolly.

The letter quoted an Oct. 3 statement by the Virginia Department of Elections that acknowledged more than 10,000 individuals whose voting rights had been restored were removed from voter rolls over the past nine months. Some of those removals were caused by a systems error that recorded technical probation violations as new felony conviction — a problem the Youngkin administration says it is working to correct.

Several days later it acknowledged that at least 270 voters were impacted by this error and erroneously removed. As it continues trying to identify affected voters, the administration has stated that it will reinstate eligible voters as quickly as possible and notify them of this action.

The Democratic letter writers suggest however, that there could potentially be thousands of Virginia voters who may have been disenfranchised because of this error. This is an “enormous barrier to the democratic process,” especially with early voting already underway, the letter states.

Virginia is one of the only states that permanently disenfranchises citizens with felony convictions unless the governor restores this right to them, according to the letter. Since the 1980s, governors from both parties have tried to simplify the process for restoring voting rights. The Democratic Congressional delegation argues this course was reversed by Gov. Youngkin and restoration of voting rights is now subject to a “slower and more opaque process.”

The delegation cites previous issues with Virginia’s voter registration system, including the delayed processing of hundreds of thousands of voter registrations last year and the state’s withdrawal in May from the interstate Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) which aims to keep voter rolls up to date.

The closing paragraph of the letter urges immediate action from the Justice Department to investigate how the removals happened and what is being done to ensure voters illegally removed are notified of their eligibility to vote.

The Democratic Congressional delegation said swift action is necessary “to ensure every citizen’s right to the ballot box is protected as required by the Voting Rights Act.”

All 140 seats in the General Assembly are on the ballot in November.