Los Angeles’ top federal prosecutor said he fears noncitizens may be casting ballots illegally in California as dozens of polling sites opened across Los Angeles County on Saturday. He also warned that the state could be trying to delay the process until disputed votes are already counted.
First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli told The California Post that it is “very highly likely” noncitizens have already voted. The Justice Department is seeking to have California set aside ballots linked to more than 20,000 people suspected of being noncitizens.
“If you look at California’s own papers, they said they’ve already processed over 300,000 ballots just for LA County. So this is going on as we speak,” Essayli said. He warned that additional disputed ballots could be cast while the case moves through the courts.
Essayli and US Attorney General Todd Blanche are directing the Justice Department’s effort before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. They are asking the court to require California to segregate the disputed ballots and confirm each voter’s citizenship before counting them.
The dispute involves a list of more than 20,000 individuals that California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan did not examine within the timeframe sought by the Justice Department.
As the federal and state governments continue their courtroom fight ahead of Sunday’s oral arguments, Essayli said California’s resistance to the DOJ’s directive could result in an unknown number of illegal votes being included in the count.
“Our biggest fear is they’re just going to try to run out the clock until all the ballots have been processed, in which case there will be nothing we’ll be able to do after the election,” Essayli said, pointing to recent California elections decided by extremely narrow margins. “Once they count the ballots, there’s no way to go back and undo that.”
Early in-person voting for the Nov. 3 election began Saturday at 123 vote centers throughout Los Angeles County. Hundreds more locations are expected to open next weekend.
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Essayli said the possibility of noncitizens voting in person was particularly troubling because “that ballot is processed instantly.”
Just days earlier, federal agents arrested 28 people accused of voting illegally in a wide-ranging California operation. Investigators said the suspects were identified from the list of more than 20,000 suspected noncitizens.
The suspects were charged with fraudulently registering for US elections, and authorities allege that most also cast illegal ballots. Officials described the arrests as the largest operation of its kind in California history.
“All of them were registered to vote and some of them voted in multiple elections. So this is not a theory,” Essayli said.
The prosecutor questioned why California officials would oppose the Justice Department’s review, saying critics have characterized any illegal voting as involving only a “small percentage” of voters.
“So what percentage is acceptable? I’d like to know from California,” Essayli said.
Before filing suit, the Justice Department sent Los Angeles County a password-protected thumb drive containing information about suspected noncitizens who had been mailed ballots, according to letters sent last week to Weber and Logan.
Logan said at the time that he did not regard the drive as a secure device and had not opened any of its files.
“What are they afraid of? Why are they refusing to work with us to figure this out?” Essayli said. “If they’re so confident that their records are so good and noncitizens aren’t voting, then they should have nothing to worry about.”
