Justice Department asks Washington to hold ballots from suspected noncitizens

Steve Hobbs’s office received about 60 Justice Department subpoenas

Request mechanics and figures

The Justice Department asked the Washington Secretary of State’s Office on Monday to set aside any ballots received from more than 400 people it suspects registered to vote without U.S. citizenship. In a letter to the office, the department asked state officials to hold any ballots the people might cast in next month’s midterm until they could confirm the individuals were legally eligible to vote.

The Justice Department said in the letter that it had identified 1,500 votes cast by the more than 400 people in prior elections. Washington has more than 5 million registered voters. The request asks state officials to delay counting qualifying ballots until eligibility checks are completed.

Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd said in a news conference, “We are asking the state to set aside those ballots until we can confirm they are legal voters.”

The Washington request was the latest effort by the Trump administration to identify noncitizen voters, even though the Associated Press reported that noncitizen voting is exceptionally rare. The Associated Press also wrote that President Donald Trump “has repeatedly sought to undermine public confidence in elections.”

Washington response and subpoenas

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs was reviewing the demand. His office noted that it had received about 60 subpoenas from the Justice Department since last month seeking information about voters.

“We take our responsibility to protect voter information seriously and will only respond to requests that follow due process,” Hobbs said in an emailed statement. “We see what’s happening in California and don’t want Washingtonians to be harassed.”

Additional-list and naturalization caveats

The Justice Department told Washington it anticipated sending an additional list of suspected noncitizens before Election Day. The department also noted that some of the people it suspected had registered without citizenship may have since become naturalized.

Nevada and Maricopa County verification record

The Associated Press reported that investigations into earlier allegations had revealed far fewer instances than the Trump administration claimed. In Nevada, the administration alleged that 1,500 potential noncitizens were on the voter rolls, but a subsequent investigation found zero.

In Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, the county recorder, described by the Associated Press as a Trump supporter, announced that 207 possible noncitizens were on the rolls. The Republican county attorney determined that there were eight.

California legal background

The demand paralleled the Justice Department’s attempt in California to require the state to sequester mail ballots from up to 20,000 people the federal government suspected might not be citizens. California challenged the demand, and during rare Sunday arguments, a panel of federal appellate judges questioned the request’s timing, constitutionality and authority.

The Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution gives state legislatures the power to set the time, place and manner of congressional elections. Los Angeles County Assistant Registrar-Recorder Monica Flores said in a court filing that her staff reviewed a sample of 200 records from the Trump administration’s list. The sample included canceled or inactive registrations, people with no voting history and voters who appeared to have been born in the United States.