Democrats Sue Trump Administration Over Voter-Roll Pressure as California Asks Court to Dismiss Ballot Lawsuit

Democratic campaign organizations and party leaders asked a federal court on Tuesday to block the Trump administration from pressuring states to remove voters from registration rolls less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, opening a second front in a fast-moving court fight over voter lists.

The 44-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, names President Donald Trump, Attorney General Todd Blanche, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security as defendants. The plaintiffs include the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic Governors Association, the Nevada Democratic Party, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Erick Jose Jimenez, a naturalized citizen registered to vote in California.

The complaint says the administration has used “shoddily compiled lists of supposed noncitizens” that, in its words, “crumbled upon the barest inspection.” In Nevada, according to the suit, the Department of Homeland Security first said it had found nearly 16,000 noncitizens registered to vote, then cut the figure to 185. Nevada officials told federal authorities that all 185 appeared to be citizens, the complaint says.

The Democrats argue the administration has no authority to direct how states maintain voter lists or to decide which voters receive ballots. “None of this is lawful,” the complaint states. It asks a judge to bar federal officials from threatening states that decline to remove registered voters. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge of the D.C. federal court.

California asks judge to toss the ballot lawsuit

On Wednesday, California moved to dismiss a separate lawsuit in which the Justice Department seeks to stop the state from counting up to 20,000 mail ballots from voters federal officials identified as likely noncitizens. The state said the lawsuit failed to show that any voter cast an unlawful ballot and rests on “a chain of possibilities” rather than evidence of unlawful voting in Los Angeles and elsewhere.

The California case grew out of the department’s demand that the state and Los Angeles County set aside ballots from the roughly 20,000 voters on a federal list, after the department sent officials a thumb drive with the names last week and then sued when they refused to set aside the ballots. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has called the suit “a reckless political stunt” that threatens to disenfranchise thousands of Californians. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter set the first hearing for Tuesday, and California asked him to rule on the dismissal request by Friday.

On Monday, federal authorities announced that 11 people from the list had been arrested and 28 had been charged under “Operation Protect the Vote” with illegally registering or voting. Prosecutors said the suspects were all lawful permanent residents. Bonta said the cases amounted to 0.0001 percent of California’s 23 million registered voters, while the Justice Department argues even a small number of unlawful votes can matter in close contests.

The administration defends the effort

The administration says it is acting to protect elections and enforce federal law. In a statement to The Washington Post on Wednesday, Justice Department spokeswoman Kiersten Pels said, “Every action the Department has taken to protect the integrity of this year’s elections is grounded in the law and being litigated in open court.” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told the Los Angeles Times the administration is “taking decisive lawful action to protect our elections,” including prosecuting election crimes and protecting voters from fraud and coercion.

The voter-roll push extends beyond California. Over the past year, the department has sued dozens of states seeking detailed voter records to enforce federal election laws; according to the Washington Examiner, those suits have failed in at least 26 states, including some led by Republicans.

Reporting based on coverage by the Washington Examiner and Democracy Docket.