Butte County official rejects Justice Department demand to segregate ballots

Denlay said federal list had 46 entries despite DOJ’s 47-name count

In an interview Wednesday, Keaton Denlay, Butte County’s clerk-recorder and registrar of voters, said he had declined to act on a Justice Department request concerning a list the department described as containing 47 likely noncitizens. His office serves a county of 209,000 people north of Sacramento.

Denlay said the letter allowed 48 hours to respond and threatened federal criminal liability for knowingly counting ballots cast by people federal agencies identified as noncitizens. The accompanying printed list had missing, duplicated and incomplete information.

On Friday at about 3:30 p.m., a person identifying himself as a Department of Homeland Security agent delivered paperwork to Denlay’s office. The package included a Justice Department demand letter that misspelled Denlay’s surname as “Danlay,” two declarations and a two-page list. Denlay said the two pages were copies of the same list.

The Justice Department letter said it was providing Denlay with a list that “contains 47 likely aliens” whom it described as unlawfully registered to vote. It demanded that Denlay’s office provide federal prosecutors with more information on those people, including Social Security numbers, and instructed him to segregate rather than cancel their vote-by-mail ballots until citizenship status could be determined.

The 48-hour letter warned: “If persons knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens, they risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime.”

Denlay’s review found that the list contained 46 names, including one repeated twice, leaving 45 distinct names rather than the 47 cited by the Justice Department. He said 32 of the distinct names were not on Butte County’s active voter rolls and had not been sent ballots.

Seven entries lacked sufficient information for cross-checking because they included only a partial name or address, or lacked a date of birth, driver’s license number or Social Security digits. In a statement published on the county website, Denlay wrote that “This left six names out of the alleged 47 that may, according to DoJ, be ineligible to vote.”

Denlay said the spreadsheet’s columns were too narrow and sometimes cut off information, making it difficult to match the entries with the county’s database. He described the experience as a “rollercoaster of emotions” but said serious election-crime claims should be supported by concrete evidence. “There wasn’t any actionable information for me there,” he said.

Denlay said he had to take the delivery seriously because the person presenting the papers identified himself as a federal agent and claimed they were evidence of voter fraud. He said he never received a digital copy of the spreadsheet, received no further communication from the Justice Department and personally reviewed the records so his staff could remain focused on the election.

Denlay cited a California law that says “the challenger shall have the burden of establishing extraordinary proof of the validity of the challenge at the time the challenge is made.” He wrote: “Given the overall inaccuracy of the list provided and its lack of specificity, I believe the Department of Justice has not met that burden.”

Speaking about the federal threats, Denlay said, “Taking all this information as a whole, it kind of becomes absurd, so I’m not losing any sleep over it.” Denlay said he would continue doing his job in a way that supported Butte County and its voters.

In the final weeks of the midterm elections, Justice Department officials alleged that 20,000 voters in California were likely noncitizens and sued to stop ballots from being counted. California state officials rejected the claims, citing unreliable data and the risk of disenfranchising U.S. citizens, and argued that the federal government lacked authority to interfere with California elections in that manner.

The Justice Department sent letters directly to county registrars, gave them 48 hours to respond and repeatedly threatened criminal charges, drawing a rebuke from a federal judge weighing the lawsuit. The letter to Denlay was signed by Eric Grant, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, which includes Butte County. Lauren Horwood, a spokesperson for Grant’s office, declined to comment on Denlay’s statement, and a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson did not respond to an inquiry.

Francisco Diaz, registrar of voters for San Benito County, said his office received a list of 33 names and found that some were not currently registered in the county. “We will not be intimidated by agents with guns for simply doing our jobs, nor will we be rushed into compromising confidential voter data,” Diaz said.

The Orange County registrar of voters said he did not initially receive the Justice Department letter because officials delivered it to the county’s clerk-recorder, a position that handles marriage licenses and property deeds rather than elections, CalMatters reported.

Legal experts cited by The Guardian said the Justice Department was making empty threats designed to intimidate officials and that California election leaders were following the law when they declined to comply.

Denlay said: “If voters are on the active voter list, it means they’ve met all the criteria under California and federal law to be eligible voters.” He said a challenger must establish extraordinary proof and that the list did not come close to that standard. “Election officials, whether me or anybody else in the state, are doing everything we would normally do to secure a successful election,” he said.