The Trump administration has opened a criminal investigation into California’s voter registration systems as President Donald Trump claims that polls predicting a Democratic “blue wave” are “rigged.”
The Department of Justice issued grand jury subpoenas last week to employees of the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office, an agency spokesperson confirmed to Our News Outlet.
The subpoenas seek voter-registration records for people the Justice Department appears to suspect are not U.S. citizens, according to The New York Times.
They also demand internal communications and documents detailing the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s “methods for screening for unlawful voting by aliens.”
Local election officials were reportedly warned that they could face “significant federal scrutiny” if they failed to comply.
“At every step, the U.S. Department of Justice has taken a confrontational, adversarial approach. Election officials are acting in accordance with state and federal law,” Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan told Our News Outlet in a statement.
“Threats and intimidation have no place in elections. We will take whatever steps necessary to ensure the safety of our employees and to remain focused on serving the voters of Los Angeles County so they can exercise their voting franchise.”
A spokesperson for California Governor Gavin Newsom also criticized the Trump administration’s actions, telling the Daily May in a statement: “This is a new low in Trump and his administration’s assault on democracy and the rule of law.
“It is totally inappropriate for the federal government to use its power to go after local officials for following state and federal law.”
The Trump administration has subpoenaed local election officials in California
Two employees at the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office have reportedly been subpoenaed by the Justice Department
Early voting has already begun in California for the U.S. midterm election
The dispute between Los Angeles County election officials and the Department of Justice began earlier this month, when local workers received a thumb drive containing “sensitive and personally identifiable information” on more than 20,000 people, according to court documents.
The DOJ claimed the individuals were “likely noncitizens who were sent a vote-by-mail ballot” and asked county officials to verify the information within 48 hours.
The county said it could not confirm the individuals’ citizenship status within that deadline. The DOJ then filed a lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge David Carter rejected the request on Wednesday, writing that the case concerned “the right of every American citizen to vote in a free and fair election.”
“Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch,” he wrote.
Carter said the legal action was “indicative of a broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference by federal officials.”
Earlier this week, the Justice Department also announced charges involving “48 aliens” in five states, including California, over alleged fraudulent voting.
As the Trump administration escalates its focus on election fraud, the president has campaigned for Republicans in multiple races, claiming that polls showing Democrats ahead are rigged.
Pollsters have forecast a blue wave ahead of this year’s midterm elections, with Democrats hoping to gain control of both the Senate and the House.
Los Angeles County election officials received the subpoenas as early voting got underway. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office called the move “a new low in Trump and his administration’s assault on democracy and the rule of law”
In Mississippi and Kansas, Senate Republicans in deeply conservative states face unexpectedly competitive Democratic challenges. Republican House incumbents in Colorado and Minnesota are also contending with well-funded opponents.
More than a dozen Senate races are polling within the margin of error. Democrats Abdul El-Sayed and James Talarico lead by seven and six points, respectively, according to recent CNN polls.
Trump dismissed the unfavorable outlook in a recent Newsmax interview, calling polls that showed Democrats ahead “rigged.”
He argued that positive polling for Democrats was intended to discourage his supporters from turning out to vote.
“Well, if they said you’re going to lose by three or four points, people will vote,” he said. “If they say you’re going to lose by 17, nobody goes out to vote.”
Trump urged his supporters to ignore the polls and “pretend” that he was on the ballot.
Nate Silver, the election analyst, recently told The New York Times that a Democratic sweep in the midterms could “mark the end of the Trump era.”
“The most regular trend in American elections, one of the few things that survives for decades, is there is a backlash against the president’s party at the midterm,” he said.
Our News Outlet has contacted the DOJ, the White House and Newsom’s office for comment.
