SEATTLE (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday asked Washington state to void all ballots received from more than 400 people it said were registered to vote without U.S. citizenship, less than two weeks after filing a request. similar request in California.
The announcement is the latest sign of the administration’s attempts to sow doubt about the election or its outcome in states where elections will help determine control of the U.S. Senate and House.
In a letter to Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, the Justice Department said it identified 1,500 votes cast by more than 400 people in previous elections. He asked the state to set aside any ballots they might cast in next month’s midterms until state officials can confirm they are legally eligible to vote. The state has more than 5 million registered voters, and the state issues absentee ballots to every one of them.
A registered voter last voted in 1994
At a news conference, Neil Floyd, the acting U.S. attorney in Seattle, said he believed the 405 voters identified so far represented “the tip of the iceberg.”
“Due to state limitations on our investigation, we were only able to uncover a fraction of the total number,” he said.
Hobbs said he is reviewing the DOJ’s request. His office noted that the data shared by the department included the last time each of the 405 people voted. One was in 1994.
“The timing of this request – a week before the general election – is undoubtedly intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results,” Hobbs said.
Much of the list was constructed based on “recent contacts” with suspected noncitizens, Floyd said, because federal agents now routinely check whether the people they interact with are registered voters.
Lack of state cooperation a problem, DOJ says
Without access to these state records, it will be difficult to prove that someone voted illegally, Floyd said. The Justice Department demanded information including addresses, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.
This effort is the latest by the administration to identify non-citizen voterseven if the vote of non-citizens is exceptionally rare. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said sought to undermine public confidence in elections.
Meanwhile, Washington officials noted that changes in U.S. Postal Service operations disenfranchised thousands of legitimate voters.
Voting is underway
Washington’s request marks the third time this month that the Justice Department has directly challenged the state while voting is underway. All three states – Washington, California and Alaska – have House or Senate races that will help determine the balance of power in the nation’s Capitol.
The race for Washington’s 3rd Congressional District is one of the most competitive in the country in this year’s midterm elections. The Democrats are count on MP Maria Gluesenkamp Perez re-election is crucial to their strategy to regain the majority in the United States House of Representatives. She won twice in a district that also supported Trump every time he ran for office.
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit in California in a similar attempt to force the state to reverse absentee ballots among 20,000 people, the federal government suspects they may not be citizens. Another trial filed in Alaska last week, we seek to delay the certification of the vote if the Republican incumbent president don’t win.
In California, a panel of federal appeals judges heard rare Sunday arguments and questioned the timing, constitutionality, and authority of the Justice Department’s request. On Monday, they declined to rule on the expedited deadline requested by the DOJ and sent it back to a lower court.
The Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution gives state legislatures the authority to establish the time, place, and manner of congressional elections.
Previous allegations have been exaggerated
Monica Flores, Los Angeles County’s deputy registrar-recorder, said in a court filing that her staff reviewed a sample of 200 records from the Trump administration’s list. They found that the sample included canceled or inactive registrations, people with no voting history, and voters who appeared to be born in the United States.
The Justice Department said in Washington that it plans to send the state an additional list of people it suspects are not citizens before Election Day. He also noted that some of the people he suspects were registered without citizenship may have since been naturalized.
Investigations into past allegations from non-citizen voters have found far fewer cases than the Trump administration claimed. In Nevada, the Trump administration claimed there were 1,500 potential non-citizen voters on the rolls, but a subsequent investigation revealed no results.
In Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, the Trump-supporting county registrar announced there were 207 possible noncitizens on the county rolls. The Republican county attorney determined there were actually eight. ___ Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.
Gn usa
