The U.S. Justice Department on Friday sent letters to California county election officials asking them to identify suspected noncitizens on voter rolls and to set aside mail-in ballots from those individuals while their citizenship is resolved, warning that officials who knowingly count ballots cast by noncitizens could face criminal liability.
Federal request follows earlier demand and delivery of list
The letters instruct counties 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,” and to take administrative steps to temporarily set aside ballots when citizenship cannot be confirmed, rather than immediately canceling registrations. The action follows an Oct. 13 demand from acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter to Los Angeles County and California Secretary of State Shirley Weber that asked officials to review a federal list of people described as likely noncitizens who had been sent mail ballots.
“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 U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a letter to San Bernardino County officials.
The Oct. 13 communication included a password-protected thumb drive with names of people the administration said were likely noncitizens and who had been mailed ballots for the November election. The recent letters repeat the request that counties temporarily set aside ballots from registrants whose citizenship cannot be confirmed and coordinate with federal agencies to review the list.
Los Angeles County Clerk Dean C. Logan, responding after his office received the Oct. 13 letter, said maintaining accurate voter rolls is a core responsibility of county election officials and emphasized that removal of a voter from eligibility must be based on verifiable information.
- Who sent the letters: U.S. Justice Department, with involvement from the Department of Homeland Security.
- What they asked: Counties should identify who on a federal list is a citizen and temporarily set aside mail ballots from registrants whose citizenship cannot be confirmed.
- Potential consequence: The Justice Department warned that knowingly counting ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens could expose officials to criminal liability.
The administration has intensified scrutiny of voter rolls in the weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections. County officials and state election administrators have stressed that any action to remove or otherwise affect a voter’s registration must rest on verifiable matches and follow state and federal law governing eligibility and election procedures.
The Justice Department letters and the earlier delivery of a list to county offices represent an escalation in coordination between federal law enforcement and local election administrators. County clerks and secretaries of state must now review the federal list, consult with federal agencies as directed, and make determinations about how to handle the mail ballots identified while adhering to legal requirements for voter registration and ballot processing.
