Justice Department directs that suspicious ballots from non-citizens in California be set aside
LOS ANGELES:- On Friday, U.S. federal prosecutors sent a letter to county election officials across California, requesting that they set aside and verify the validity of ballots identified by the Department of Justice as potentially belonging to non-citizens. This information emerged from a letter obtained by the Los Angeles County registrar and the Associated Press.
This letter is the latest development in an ongoing legal dispute between the State of California and President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice. With the midterm elections approaching, the Department of Justice has focused its attention on California in an effort to prevent illegal voting by non-citizens. However, data indicate that illegal voting by individuals who are not U.S. citizens is extremely rare, difficult to prove, and has had no impact on election outcomes.
Earlier this month, the federal government filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles County and the California Secretary of State’s office, seeking to prevent the counting of votes from potentially 20,000 non-citizen voters. A hearing for this case is scheduled for Tuesday. The Trump administration had set a deadline of Saturday for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to issue a ruling, even before waiting for a decision from the district judge assigned to the case.
According to the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office, at least 18 counties across the state have received similar letters so far. They have been given a 48-hour deadline to provide identification details regarding ballots that the federal government suspects may have been cast by non-citizens who were registered unlawfully. The letter requests that county officials set aside any ballots for which citizenship cannot be verified.
“Any election official who knowingly includes a non-citizen’s ballot in the process will themselves face legal jeopardy,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Aseily.
The Justice Department is requesting information from counties—including Social Security numbers, identification details, and copies of voter registration records—for voters suspected of being non-citizens.
A letter sent to election officials in San Bernardino County states that such information will assist the government and the state in conducting a rapid assessment of each individual suspected of being illegally registered. According to the letter, the government’s list of suspected non-citizen voters includes 1,133 individuals from this Southern California county.
The California Secretary of State and the registrar for Los Angeles County have opposed this demand from the federal government. In legal filings, California’s attorneys have argued that this request would delay the certification of election results and undermine the legitimacy of the November midterm elections. They have also stated that the federal government’s data is unreliable and that this demand risks disenfranchising citizens.
The voting process has already begun in California, and ballots were mailed to the state’s more than 23 million registered voters earlier this month. According to information submitted by the state to the court, over 330,000 mail-in ballots have already been counted.
Prior to the letter sent on Friday, federal authorities conducted raids across the state earlier this week and charged 28 individuals—identified from a list of 20,000—with illegal voter registration. Some of these individuals have also been charged with illegal voting and providing false information on documents related to their naturalized citizenship. If convicted, they could face years in prison.
