Federal hearing over roughly 20,000 ‘likely’ noncitizen voters set for Tuesday
Federal prosecutors told California county registrars on Friday to set aside and verify ballots that the Department of Justice said may belong to noncitizens, according to the Los Angeles County registrar’s office and a letter obtained by the Associated Press. At least 18 counties received similar letters, giving officials 48 hours to provide identifying information and sequester ballots whose citizenship cannot be verified. The action followed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the counting of votes for roughly 20,000 people labeled “likely” noncitizen voters, with a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
A source photograph credited to Mike Blake/Reuters showed election workers processing mail-in ballots in San Diego on Friday.
The letters seek identifying information about people on the Department of Justice’s suspected-noncitizen list. The department asked counties for social security numbers, identification information, copies of voter registrations and other details, according to the letter sent to San Bernardino County voting officials. The letter said the information could help the government and state quickly assess whether each person suspected of illegally registering to vote had done so. It said the list included 1,133 people from San Bernardino County.
First assistant U.S. attorney Bill Essayli said: “Any election official who knowingly processes the ballot of a noncitizen is opening themselves to legal jeopardy.”
Earlier this month, the federal government targeted Los Angeles County and the office of California’s secretary of state in a lawsuit seeking to block the counting of votes for roughly 20,000 people labeled “likely” noncitizen voters. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. The Trump administration has asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to rule on the case in a way that would bar a decision from the assigned district judge, with a deadline for Saturday.
Voting is under way in California, where the state said in legal filings that more than 23 million registered voters received ballots in the mail earlier this month and more than 330,000 mail-in ballots had been counted.
The Guardian reported that data shows illegal voting by noncitizens is incredibly rare, difficult to prove and has not been shown to change the outcome of races. It described the letters as the latest escalation in the legal battle between California and Donald Trump’s Department of Justice. The department has recently focused on California in its efforts to root out noncitizen voting ahead of the midterm elections, while the Trump administration continued to make claims of voter fraud.
A statewide sweep by federal authorities earlier in the week charged 28 people from the roughly 20,000-person list with illegally registering to vote. The Guardian reported that some were also charged with illegally voting and lying on naturalization paperwork. The charges could lead to years in prison.
California’s secretary of state and the Los Angeles County registrar have opposed the federal demands. In legal filings, lawyers for California said the requests could delay certification of the vote and undermine the legitimacy of the November midterms. They also argued that the federal government’s data was unreliable and that the demands risked disenfranchising citizens.