The Justice Department on Friday ordered California election officials to identify suspected noncitizens on voter rolls and set aside their mail-in ballots — warning that officials who knowingly count ballots cast by noncitizens could face criminal liability.
The action marks an escalation in the Trump administration’s efforts to scrutinize voter rolls ahead of the midterm elections as it continues to double down on claims of voter fraud, fueled by President Donald Trump’s baseless allegations of widespread election cheating.
Letters sent to California county election officials asked them to work with the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security to “identify who on the accompanying list is a citizen and who is not.”
“If persons knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens, they risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime,” First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said to San Bernardino County officials in a letter, which was seen by CNN.
Santa Cruz County received a letter with 81 names, which it said is still under review. So far, officials have found most of the records belong to voters who are no longer actively registered in the county, County Clerk Tricia Webber told CNN on Saturday.
“They are either canceled or inactive records,” Webber said. At least one name has never been registered in the county, Webber added.
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Rural Modoc County also received a list with one voter who appears to have never been registered in the county, according to an election official.
Marin County, north of San Francisco, received a list of 48 “likely aliens,” according to a letter seen by CNN. Nearby Solano County said its list had 170 names.
Nevada County has reviewed a list of 10 names and is “confident that state and federal laws are being followed,” according to a statement shared with CNN.
Santa Clara, Napa, Butte and Amador counties confirmed they have also received a letter but Riverside County told CNN as of Saturday afternoon, it had not.
“All of this is simply meant to raise huge doubts about the integrity of this election,” John Tuteur, registrar of voters for Napa County, told The Associated Press.
Tuteur said two uniformed Department of Homeland Security officers delivered a letter with 42 names to his office late on Friday afternoon, according to the AP.
“We’re not changing anything we’re doing. We’re proceeding with the election,” Tuteur added.
The letters follow a demand earlier this month 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-in ballots. McCotter threatened to seek “emergency relief” if officials did not comply.
The earlier letter, sent October 13, included a password-protected thumb drive containing names of people the administration “believes are likely non-citizens” who had been sent ballots for the November election. It asked officials to temporarily set aside ballots from people whose citizenship could not be confirmed, rather than cancel their registrations.
“Maintaining accurate voter registration records is a fundamental responsibility of our office,” Los Angeles County Clerk Dean C. Logan said in a statement, after receiving the October 13 letter.
“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.”
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Logan sent an email to the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials on Friday, saying the latest DOJ letter includes a “posture of intimidation and threats leveled against local election officials just twelve days before the election.”
Logan said that the DOJ “misrepresents” the county’s response to the earlier letter as “resistance to a civil lawsuit that was not yet filed” and is now giving an “unenforceable 48-hour deadline” to provide information that it has previously “obtained through subpoenas.”
The Justice Department last week sued California and Los Angeles County, seeking to prevent officials from counting more than 20,000 mail-in ballots associated with people the government believes are likely noncitizens. A federal judge scheduled a hearing on the case for next week, but the Justice Department on Friday asked the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene before then.
“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,” the motion noted.
Logan, in Friday’s email, said the DOJ provided in its letter a list of the 20,000 noncitizens it believes are on the county’s voter rolls. But a review of those names, he said, showed that many “were associated with addresses throughout California, not solely within Los Angeles County.”
A similar legal battle is unfolding in Alaska, where the Trump administration is seeking to block certification of the state’s Senate race under certain circumstances if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses. The race is being closely watched as Democrats seek to regain control of the Senate.
The administration has repeatedly alleged that hundreds of thousands of noncitizens are on voter rolls. Only US citizens are allowed to vote in federal and state elections. But some states, including California, have passed laws allowing noncitizens to cast ballots in local or school board elections.
In August, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said his department had identified 250,000 people it believed were noncitizens and registered to vote in four states — California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada — by comparing voter-registration records with federal immigration data.
But the administration’s claims have faced scrutiny, and some initial findings have not held up under further review. In Nevada, for example, DHS told state officials that its initial finding of 15,900 potentially noncitizen registrants was preliminary and unvetted, and that it had confirmed only 185 through manual review.
Last month, Nevada officials told DHS their subsequent review found that all 185 were US citizens, a conclusion the federal agency disputes.
In response to Friday’s letters, California Sen. Alex Padilla, a ranking member of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee with oversight over federal elections, called the administration “afraid and desperate.”
“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,” Padilla said.
“The Trump administration is afraid and desperate. Their attempts to take over our elections will fail. Election officials: We have your back. California: Your vote is your voice. Use it and let’s hold this administration accountable.”
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