USAupdated 1h ago2 min read
Trump Administration Threatens California Election Officials Over Alleged Noncitizens On Los Angeles Voter Rolls
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
DOJ threatened legal action against California if it fails to review noncitizens within 48 hours. The list targeted Los Angeles County voters as possible noncitizens for the federal election.
DOJ presses California
The Trump administration threatened to take legal action against California election officials if they did not review a list of alleged noncitizens on Los Angeles’ voter rolls within 48 hours, according to Tuesday letters from the Justice Department obtained by CNN. Acting deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter wrote in the letters to the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder and the California Secretary of State that DOJ would “have no choice but to seek emergency relief” if election officials did not take steps to identify the alleged noncitizen voters. McCotter wrote that the department provided a password-protected thumb drive containing names the administration “believes are likely non-citizens” who were sent a mail ballot this year.
The letters demanded that election officials refuse to send ballots to the alleged noncitizen voters and segregate ballots from voters on the list until citizenship was confirmed. Kiersten Pels said, “Federal law is clear: only American citizens may vote in federal elections,” as she defended sending the letters.
California vote-by-mail
Kiersten Pels confirmed the department “has sent letters to California election officials demanding immediate action to ensure that noncitizens do not vote in the upcoming federal election.”
The DOJ gave California officials 48 hours to comb through a “password-protected thumb drive” provided to Los Angeles County with names of people the Trump administration “believes are likely noncitizens,” Reuters reported.
California, a universal vote-by-mail state, began sending ballots to its more than 20 million voters on Oct. 5.
The letter warned that the federal government “will have no choice but to seek emergency relief” if California does not comply, and it directed officials to refuse to count returned ballots unless citizenship is verified.
The California Secretary of State’s Office did not immediately return Democracy Docket’s request for comment, and the article said it was not clear how many alleged noncitizens DOJ put on the list.
Legal fight and stakes
The Justice Department threatened legal action against California unless state officials investigate voters the department claims are “likely noncitizens,” and it described the directive as ordering the state to withhold mail-in ballots from those named.
Acting Deputy Attorney General R. McCotter wrote, “Allowing noncitizens to vote cancels citizen votes,” in the communication to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber.
The letter required flagged voters whose ballots were already received to have their submissions “segregated” once returned, and it said ballots already submitted should not be counted “until citizenship has been determined.”
Justice Department spokeswoman Kiersten Pels confirmed the letter’s existence and said, “The department will take all necessary legal action to protect election integrity and ensure compliance with federal law.”
Spokespeople for the California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan did not immediately respond to CNN’s inquiries about the latest administration demands.