Election officials in Arizona, Utah dismiss letters as intimidation
The Justice Department sent the letters Tuesday to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as MSI reported earlier. The seven-page letters, signed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who runs the Civil Rights Division, warn that any election officer who “knowingly retains noncitizens on the state’s voter list or facilitates noncitizens in receiving and casting ballots could be subject to criminal liability.”
The letters demand that state election officials respond within five days “explaining in detail how they will comply with these federal laws both at the state and local level and how the Department can assist in those efforts,” according to a copy shared with The New York Times. The letters do not specify what action the department might take if states do not respond.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that noncitizen voting is widespread, but according to David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a nonpartisan group, the department has produced no evidence of such voting in 18 months. NBC News reported that a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement the letters were sent “asking for voluntary compliance in a timely manner with their obligations under federal law to ensure only citizens vote in federal elections.”
Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican who serves as the state’s chief election officer, said the letters amounted to threats. “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. 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, posted on X that the department should not be threatening states. “It is insulting to insinuate that the good people at our county recorders’ offices across the state are not doing their jobs correctly,” Fontes said. “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.”
David Becker, a former voting rights lawyer for the Justice Department who now runs the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said the letters appeared to be a performative display. “This is what panic and desperation looks like,” Becker told The Times. “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.”