Justice Department Tells California Counties to Segregate Mail Ballots of Suspected Noncitizens, Warning of Criminal Liability

The Justice Department on Friday ordered California election officials to identify suspected noncitizens on voter rolls and set aside their mail ballots, warning that officials who knowingly count ballots cast by noncitizens could face criminal liability.

Letters sent to county election officials asked them to work with the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security to “identify who on the accompanying list is a citizen and who is not,” according to CNN, which reviewed the letters.

In a letter to San Bernardino County officials, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli wrote: “If persons knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens, they risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime.”

An earlier demand, and a lawsuit over 20,000 ballots

The letters follow an October 13 demand from acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter, who gave Los Angeles County and California Secretary of State Shirley Weber 48 hours to review a federal list of suspected noncitizens who had been sent mail ballots, and threatened to seek “emergency relief” if officials did not comply. That letter included a password-protected thumb drive with names the administration “believes are likely non-citizens” and asked officials to temporarily set aside ballots from people whose citizenship could not be confirmed, rather than cancel their registrations.

The department sued California and Los Angeles County last week, seeking to prevent officials from counting more than 20,000 mail ballots tied to people the government believes are likely noncitizens. A federal judge set a hearing for next week, and the department on Friday asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene before then. In its motion, the department said: “Every minute of processing that occurs without segregating the ballots of suspected ineligible voters causes untraceable disenfranchisement and dilution of the votes of United States citizens.”

County clerk pushes back, senator calls move desperate

Los Angeles County Clerk Dean C. Logan, in an email Friday to the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials, said the latest letter carried a “posture of intimidation and threats leveled against local election officials just twelve days before the election.” He said the department “misrepresents” the county’s response to the earlier letter as “resistance to a civil lawsuit that was not yet filed” and set an “unenforceable 48-hour deadline” for information the county says the department already “obtained through subpoenas.” He also said a review of the department’s list of 20,000 names showed many “were associated with addresses throughout California, not solely within Los Angeles County.”

After the October 13 letter, Logan said: “Maintaining accurate voter registration records is a fundamental responsibility of our office,” and “Federal and state laws are clear on how voter eligibility is established, and any action to remove a voter from eligibility must be based on verifiable information, not assertions of unconfirmed data matching.”

In a separate case this week, a federal judge blocked Homeland Security election field operations in nine states until polls close.

The administration’s voter-roll claims have faced scrutiny. In August, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said his department had identified 250,000 people it believed were noncitizens and registered to vote in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada, by comparing voter-registration records with federal immigration data. In Nevada, the department later told state officials its initial finding of 15,900 potentially noncitizen registrants was preliminary and unvetted, and that manual review had confirmed only 185. Nevada officials then told the department their review found all 185 were U.S. citizens, a conclusion the department disputes, according to CNN.

Senator Alex Padilla, the ranking member of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, called the administration “afraid and desperate.” He said: “Trump’s DOJ has not provided any evidence for their claims of massive voter fraud. They’ve admitted that the data they point to is inaccurate and unreliable. No matter how many lawsuits they file or how many election officials they threaten, they do not have the authority to interfere.” Only U.S. citizens may vote in federal and state elections, while California is among states that allow noncitizens to vote in some local or school board elections, according to CNN.

Reporting based on coverage by CNN.