US President Donald Trump has threatened California election officials with jail time if they count the ballots of people the administration has identified as possible non-citizens.
“They will all go to jail for a long time,” Trump said in a Truth Social article sharing a letter the Department of Justice (DOJ) sent to Los Angeles County officials, warning them that counting the ballots of alleged non-citizens would open itself up to federal criminal prosecution.
This comes after the DOJ filed a lawsuit against California on Thursday, over the state’s refusal to review a list of more than 20,000 names that the department said were likely non-citizens and to reject the ballots of anyone confirmed whose status could not be confirmed.
The state had 48 hours to do so after authorities received the list, on a USB stick, on Tuesday. California refused, saying it did not consider the list safe or substantiated.
California cannot deny ballots based on ‘unverified allegations’
“We cannot deny or refuse to count ballots based solely on unverified allegations,” Los Angeles County Clerk Dean Logan said in a statement, adding that the DOJ had not provided its “underlying evidence, sources, or methodologies to support its assertions that the individuals identified in its records are ineligible to vote.”
In the DOJ’s lawsuit, it argued that the rejection of an “encrypted USB drive from a federal agent” demonstrated the state’s “complete lack of commitment to working with the federal government to protect the integrity of our elections.”
He asked the court to block California from counting absentee ballots cast by suspected non-citizens until their citizenship status can be verified. He also revealed new details about how the ministry compiled the list.
“Aide and accomplice to a federal crime”
On Friday, Acting Assistant United States Attorney General Trent McCotter sent a letter regarding possible criminal charges to Peter M. Bollinger, deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Logan received a copy of the letter.
“If individuals knowingly count the ballots of individuals identified by federal agencies as non-citizens, they risk becoming complicit in a federal crime,” McCotter said.
News week contacted Weber and Logan’s offices, via email outside of normal business hours, for comment.
Why California won’t comply
State officials say that complying with the DOJ’s request would violate federal law, that the list is unfounded and that the delay was unreasonable.
When Weber responded to the DOJ, she called the allegations “vague” and argued that it would be illegal to comply with them because the National Voter Registration Act generally prohibits the systematic removal of voter rolls within 90 days of a federal election.
“As you fully acknowledge, ballots have already been delivered to voters and voting is well underway,” she wrote in her letter. “Despite this, and with less than three weeks until the election, you are demanding unprecedented measures that threaten the right to vote of thousands of Californians, based on unverifiable information or methodology that you still fail to explain or provide.”
Weber also criticized the 48-hour deadline, “on the eve of an election,” adding, “This is an emergency of DOJ creation. »
“California’s election administration will continue to be governed by applicable federal and state laws, not unsubstantiated claims and outrageous demands,” she said.
She added that “if the federal government has evidence that some registered voters in California are ineligible,” she “would appreciate the opportunity to review” that evidence.
“However, I will not disenfranchise thousands of Californians – or order a county election official to do so – based solely on an unsupported and likely inaccurate ‘belief(f)’ that some voters are ‘probably’ non-citizens,” she said.
Likewise, in response to Thursday’s lawsuit, Logan said in a statement: “We cannot withhold or refuse to count ballots based solely on unverified allegations, nor can we ignore the legal requirements governing our election.” »
DOJ case against California
The DOJ has asked the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to block the state from counting the mail-in ballots of people it has flagged as likely noncitizens until their citizenship can be verified.
It says California “refused to independently verify the citizenship of those on the list” or “agree to work with the federal government to verify the citizenship status before counting the votes of these voters.”
The complaint argued that federal law that bars noncitizens from voting overrides California’s election procedures, and that continuing to count ballots from people on the DOJ list without additional verification would amount to “knowingly facilitating illegal voting.”
The DOJ has rejected arguments that the list is not secure, with McCotter saying in his Friday letter that the drive was password-protected and hand-delivered. “This list was developed through a multi-tiered, multi-agency investigative methodology that relied on internal immigration records, data matches, surveillance verification procedures, etc.,” he wrote.
McCotter also rejected California’s invocation of the 90-day rule, saying “it only applies to systematic list-keeping programs, not to targeted, individualized evidence of illegal voting identified by federal law enforcement.”
“Non-citizen voting in federal elections is a federal crime – and knowingly facilitating such conduct is equally illegal,” he said.
“The department has not requested any purges, any cancellation of registrations, or any programmatic actions,” he said. “We have only requested temporary segregation of ballots pending citizenship verification.”
Reiterating the threat of criminal prosecution, McCotter said: “Non-citizen voting in a federal election is a federal crime – and knowingly facilitating such conduct is equally illegal. »
A broader vision
The Trump administration has made non-citizen voting a major priority ahead of the midterm elections, although documented cases remain rare. Reuters reported that an investigation released in July identified 129 people prosecuted for non-citizen voting since federal law criminalizing such voting was enacted in 1996.
Thursday’s lawsuit puts not only those 20,000 California ballots in federal court, but also the administration’s method of tracing voters.
“We are suing California in federal court to demand that the votes of U.S. citizens not be diluted by those of non-citizens,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement.
Gov. Gavin Newsom also condemned the lawsuit Thursday, calling it a “sad and desperate attempt” by the Trump administration to suppress California voters less than three weeks before Election Day. He said California would continue to hold its elections despite the federal challenge.
Attorney General Todd Blanche doubled down on the DOJ’s request and lawsuit, saying, “State-facilitated voter fraud is unacceptable in the United States of America. »
“If found liable in a court of law, the State of California will have seriously undermined confidence in our electoral system and violated the laws that protect our nation’s system of representative government,” he said. “The Department of Justice will continue to work to uncover cases of voter fraud, hold fraudsters accountable, and restore confidence in America’s elections.”
Newsweek reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
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