Armed Department of Homeland Security officers threatened county workers with criminal charges
BBC News reviewed a 22-page Justice Department brief in which the department maintained that ballots cast by noncitizens could “debase or dilute valid votes.” The Justice Department wanted 20,000 California ballots set aside, alleging they might have been issued to non-U.S. citizens.
Last month, the Justice Department sent letters to the California secretary of state and the Los Angeles County Registrar, demanding that they set aside ballots belonging to 20,000 registered voters whom the Trump administration believed were likely noncitizens, according to court documents.
About a week later, armed officials from the Department of Homeland Security delivered letters to county officials and employees across California, threatening criminal charges if they did not sequester those ballots.
California election officials questioned the accuracy of the federal claims, saying the process used to identify alleged noncitizens was inaccurate and that the list of names supplied by the government was riddled with inaccuracies. They also expressed concern that eligible voters could be disenfranchised.
The state officials said segregating the ballots while voting was underway was unfeasible.
On Friday, a federal appeals court declined the government’s request to segregate the ballots. Two lower courts had already rejected the Justice Department’s request.
The U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision on Monday in a one-line order: “The application for injunction pending appeal presented to Justice Kagan and by her referred to the Court is denied.” The order meant rulings from lower courts would stand and effectively ended the Trump administration’s bid to disqualify the ballots.
The action came on the eve of the midterms, which will determine which political party controls the U.S. Congress for the last two years of President Donald Trump’s second term.
California is the most populous state in America, with some 23 million people on its voting register. As of Sunday night, more than six million mail-in ballots had already been received, according to the California secretary of state’s office.
The attempts are part of a years-long campaign by Trump and his administration to fight alleged voter fraud that they believe is widespread, despite research showing such fraud is extremely rare.
President Trump has repeatedly claimed that Democrats steal elections by allowing immigrants to vote illegally. He has also blamed much of that on the so-called “mail-in” or postal voting that is permitted in many Democratic states.
Last week, District Judge David Carter said the government’s move in California was indicative of an “ongoing pattern of attempted election interference” on the part of the Trump administration. He added: “never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the executive branch.”