State officials fault DOJ threats as ‘bizarre’ and ‘insulting’
The Justice Department sent letters Tuesday to all 50 states and the District of Columbia warning that state election officials could face criminal prosecution if they knowingly allow noncitizens to vote in federal elections. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Civil Rights Division, signed the seven-page letters, which the department said ask for “voluntary compliance in a timely manner” with federal laws requiring that only citizens vote in federal elections, according to a Justice Department spokesperson.
The letters list existing federal election laws that already prohibit noncitizen voting and warn that “any election officer, including the chief election officer of the state, who knowingly retains noncitizens on the state’s” voter list “or facilitates noncitizens in receiving and casting ballots could be subject to criminal liability,” Dhillon wrote. The letters also demand that election officials respond “within five days” explaining in detail how they will comply with federal laws “both at the state and local level and how the Department can assist in those efforts,” The New York Times reported. The letters do not specify consequences if states fail to respond.
Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican, publicly criticized the department’s approach. “Got another love letter this morning from the DOJ sprinkled throughout with threats of criminal prosecution,” Henderson wrote on social media. “I’m sure I’m not the only chief election officer of a state who is being targeted for following state and federal laws by resisting DOJ’s demands for private voter data that have thus far been ruled illegal by at least a dozen courts,” she wrote. “This is truly bizarre behavior by the federal agency that is supposed to be protecting civil rights.”
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, also pushed back. “It is insulting to insinuate that the good people at our county recorders’ offices across the state are not doing their jobs correctly,” Fontes wrote on X. “Arizona election officials have always worked to ensure that only eligible citizens are registered to vote, and we will continue following Arizona law — not directions that come from political rhetoric or intimidation.”
President Donald Trump has repeatedly asserted that noncitizen voting is widespread. David Becker, a former voting rights lawyer for the Justice Department who now runs the Center for Election Innovation and Research, told The New York Times the letters were a performative display. “This is what panic and desperation looks like,” Becker said. “They’ve had 18 months to find evidence of a crime that was never committed and found nothing. And now they fall back on crude and transparent bullying tactics. They sent these letters to several, perhaps all states, with no specific evidence of a crime.” Becker added that “the election officials I’ve spoken with aren’t intimidated, and are seeing these empty threats for what they are.”