The Trump administration on Monday targeted another Democratic-led state in the midterms by asking Washington to sequester ballots in next week’s election that it said could be cast by non-citizens.
Acting U.S. Attorney in Washington Neil Floyd has asked Washington’s secretary of state to review a list of more than 400 registrants the Justice Department considers non-citizens and sequester any ballots they cast.
“We have identified more than 400 non-citizens registered to vote who voted in multiple elections,” Floyd said in a press release Monday. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. We will continue to investigate and identify those who commit crimes by voting illegally.”
The request came the same day the Trump administration suffered a legal setback in its attempt to segregate thousands of ballots in California as it sought to get the federal government to tally and certify the results of the 2026 election.
NBC News first reported last week that the Justice Department was considering making more requests to states with mail-in elections that send mail-in ballots to all registered voters.
In a letter sent to Washington election officials and shared with NBC News, the Justice Department gave the state 24 hours to review the list of citizenship records.
Washington, which has more than 5 million voters on its voter rolls, refused this year to share its unredacted voter rolls with the Justice Department. Floyd criticized the state for doing so, saying Monday that it made his job take longer.
In an interview with conservative radio host Jason Rantz published Monday, Floyd said his office checked lists of permanent legal residents, such as green card holders, with voter registration records as part of their research.
Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs’ office is reviewing the list, spokeswoman Helen Smith said in an email, although Hobbs criticized the request in a statement.
“We take our responsibility to protect voter information seriously and will only respond to requests that follow due process. We saw what happened in California and we don’t want Washingtonians to be harassed,” he said. “The timing of this request – a week before the general election – is undoubtedly intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results. »
Non-citizens sometimes find themselves on the electoral roll, even if relatively few of them vote, because it is a crime with a paper trail and which can incur heavy penalties, including deportation. Newly naturalized citizens are frequently reported as noncitizens in voting records, largely because there is no comprehensive list of U.S. citizens.
The Justice Department said last week that it estimates there are 20,000 noncitizens on California’s voter rolls. He gave California 48 hours to review the administration’s list and asked it to sequester their ballots. The Trump administration then filed a lawsuit, asking a federal court to block the state from counting any of those ballots. An appeals court ruled against the Trump administration on Monday, saying the Justice Department failed to give the lower court a chance to review the administration’s allegations.
Los Angeles County election officials said in a legal filing that the Justice Department’s list of suspected noncitizens appeared to come from old voter rolls and included many apparent U.S. citizens whose registrations included U.S. birthplaces.
The administration sought to become involved in vote counting through other means.
Last week, the Trump administration — at the suggestion of President Donald Trump — sued Alaska over the candidacy of a Senate candidate with the same first and last name as outgoing Republican President Dan Sullivan. The suit asks the court to block certification of the race unless the Republican senator is re-elected.
Election experts told NBC News last week that the Trump administration’s various election lawsuits are on shaky ground because nothing in federal law gives the Justice Department the authority to intervene in election certification or ballot counting.
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