The Trump administration has given California 48 hours to review suspected noncitizen voters or face a court battle before the midterm elections.
The Justice Department issued the ultimatum in letters sent Tuesday to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Dean Logan, the registrar-recorder/county clerk for Los Angeles County. Reuters was the first to report on the correspondence.
Acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter said federal officials provided Los Angeles County with a password-protected thumb drive containing the names of people they believe may be noncitizens who were mailed ballots.
A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed to The California Post that the letters demanded immediate action to ensure that noncitizens who received ballots do not vote in the upcoming federal election.
“This should not be controversial, as the criminal statute is clear: only American citizens may vote in federal elections. It is a federal crime for noncitizens to vote in U.S. elections, and the DOJ is asking California to ensure that is not occurring,” officials said.
The letter to Weber warned that the federal government could seek emergency court intervention if state officials failed to comply, escalating tensions between Washington and California over the voter review.
“If you cannot implement this process by then, given the ongoing federal election, the United States will have no choice but to seek emergency relief,” McCotter wrote.
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A separate letter to Logan included the password-protected thumb drive listing people whom federal officials said were suspected noncitizens who had been sent mail-in ballots.
McCotter instructed county officials to examine the list within 48 hours and hold the questioned ballots while citizenship checks are conducted.
“For individuals whom you cannot independently confirm citizenship status, we request that you immediately instruct the appropriate elections official to segregate — not cancel — those individuals’ vote-by-mail ballots until their citizenship status can be determined,” he wrote.
Representatives for the secretary of state and the governor’s office did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
The Trump administration has repeatedly characterized voter fraud and noncitizen voting as widespread, although studies have found that such cases are rare.
A Reuters investigation determined that software problems and clerical errors may have added more than 30,000 noncitizens to voter rolls nationwide since 2000. However, it remained unclear how many of those individuals actually cast ballots.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors announced 16 new criminal cases Monday involving alleged noncitizen voting or fraudulent voter registrations.
