The Justice Department filed the lawsuit after California officials failed to meet a 48-hour deadline to review a password-protected thumb drive containing the list of names. Federal officials say the data was verified by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Homeland Security Investigations, but California election officials maintain no evidence was provided to support the claim.
Federal Lawsuit Seeks Halt to Ballot Counting
The Trump administration sued California election officials Thursday, asking a judge to bar the state from counting mail-in ballots for next month’s midterm elections from people the federal government has identified as “likely” noncitizens until their immigration status can be confirmed. The lawsuit comes after the Justice Department said California officials failed to meet a 48-hour deadline to review a password-protected thumb drive that contains a list of 20,000 names. Over 23 million people are registered statewide, and there are a handful of competitive congressional races in other California districts that could determine which party has control of the U.S. House for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said the federal government hasn’t provided evidence to support its allegation that 20,000 names on the state’s voter rolls are of noncitizens. She referenced an instance in which the federal government initially alleged nearly 16,000 possible noncitizens were listed on Nevada’s voter rolls, but the state determined that all the people flagged were, in fact, U.S. citizens. Weber, a Democrat, said the Justice Department was “demanding unprecedented measures that threaten thousands of Californians’ right to vote, based on unverifiable information or methodology that you still fail to explain or provide.” California’s elections are in “full compliance” with federal law, she added.
Election Experts Question Legal Basis
David Becker, an election law expert who heads the Center for Election Innovation and Research, called the Justice Department’s lawsuit “fairly frivolous.” “If they were seeking to work in good faith to clean up the voter list that they believed had issues, they would have done this months ago in a much different fashion,” Becker said. “However, it does raise questions as to whether or not the sole purpose of this is to set the stage for false claims about elections.” Becker said most election officials’ cybersecurity protocols would not allow them to comply with the Justice Department’s request as it was sent. “Election offices do not just stick thumb drives into their technology, for very good reason,” he said.
Logan said his office received the thumb drive along with a “hand written note providing a password” to access the list of alleged noncitizens on the voter rolls. He said he did not consider the thumb drive a secure device. The secretary of state’s office said the password was written “on a sticky note.” The Justice Department’s lawsuit says the federal government sought to “work collaboratively” with California to identify noncitizens registered to vote in the state, and “California made no serious effort to do so.” “The United States thus seeks commonplace election relief when a ballot is called into question,” the lawsuit says. “This Court should enjoin California from presently tabulating vote-by-mail ballots from likely noncitizens in the upcoming federal election until the voter’s citizenship status can be determined.”
Pro-Voter Coalition Moves to Intervene
A pro-voter coalition including the Los Angeles branch of the NAACP moved Friday, Oct. 16, to intervene as defendants in an 11th-hour case brought by the Justice Department seeking to prevent election officials in Los Angeles County and across the state from tallying mail ballots submitted by roughly 20,000 suspected non-citizens in the upcoming election. In a filing Friday, attorneys for the League of United Latin American Citizens and the NAACP said the groups wish to enter the case “because the Federal Government’s demands flout the law, disregard the realities of election administration, and defy basic standards of decency — all while voting is underway.”
Juan Proaño, CEO of LULAC, said in a statement it was “shameful that the United States Department of Justice is targeting the Latino community and spreading lies about our elections. We will not stand by while they attempt to deny any Americans’ vote based on unverified claims.” “The DOJ wants California to set aside ballots without establishing whether those people are actually eligible to vote. Latino voters should not have to fear that their ballots will be singled out and left uncounted because the federal government cannot get its facts straight.” According to Weber’s office, federal officials claimed in July that California had 190,000 non-citizens on its voter rolls, but when her office asked for proof of their claims, “they refused and provided California with nothing.”
Federal Officials Defend Data Integrity
The DOJ is seeking a court order to temporarily prevent the counting of votes from 20,000 people allegedly identified by the Department of Homeland Security “until their citizenship status can be determined.” Federal prosecutors — including First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli — have announced a variety of criminal cases filed in recent months against individuals suspected of voter fraud. Essayli’s office most recently charged a Honduran national living in Winnetka with fraudulently registering to vote in U.S. elections. Also last month, a Victorville man was among three people charged with allegedly paying people on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles to sign petitions using identities of registered voters to qualify initiatives for ballots in California elections.
The DOJ issued a statement Tuesday saying the letters sent to California election officials “should not be controversial, as the criminal statute is clear: only American citizens may vote in federal elections. It is a federal crime for non-citizens to vote in U.S. elections, and the DOJ is asking California to ensure that is not occurring.” Essayli took to X on Friday to lash out at California officials for failing to review the citizenship of the voters flagged by the federal government. “The 20K represents the number of non-citizens confirmed by a review of federal databases,” he wrote. “This has been confirmed by (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) and (Homeland Security Investigations). The data has been provided to California, and they are free to check the work. But that suggests California is actually interested in complying with federal elections laws.” “California is intentionally spreading misinformation about the data we produced. Instead, it should review the data and work to prevent non-citizen ballots from being counted. Especially since it already mailed ballots to them.” Kristen Clarke, NAACP general counsel, said Friday the Justice Department “is resorting to unlawful and unprecedented tactics in order to hijack the midterm election. This latest attempt to disenfranchise voters must be stopped.”
Sources
- Essayli on Trump administration suing California
- Trump administration sues CA to block state from counting alleged noncitizen mail-in ballots
- Coalition moves to intervene in DOJ lawsuit against California and LA County
Photo: California State Assembly (Public domain)
