SEATTLE (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday asked Washington state to set aside any ballots received from more than 400 people it suspects registered to vote without U.S. citizenship.
In a letter to the Washington Secretary of State’s Office, the Justice Department said it had identified 1,500 votes cast by the over 400 people in prior elections. It asked the state to set aside any ballots the people might cast in next month’s midterm until state officials can confirm they are legally eligible to vote. The state has more than 5 million registered voters.
“We are asking the state to set aside those ballots until we can confirm they are legal voters,” Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd said in a news conference.
Much of the list was built based on “recent contacts” with suspected noncitizens, Floyd said, because federal officers are now routinely checking to see if the people they interact with are registered to vote. His office wants to compare that list against the state’s voter information because that will help determine how many people actually cast ballots, Floyd said.
Without access to those state records, proving someone illegally voted will be a difficult and labor-intensive process, Floyd said.
Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs was reviewing the administration’s demand. His office noted that it had received about 60 subpoenas from the Justice Department since last month seeking information about voters.
“We take our responsibility to protect voter information seriously and will only respond to requests that follow due process,” Hobbs said in an emailed statement. “We see what’s happening in California and don’t want Washingtonians to be harassed.”
The effort is the latest by the administration to identify noncitizen voters, even though noncitizen voting is exceptionally rare. President Donald Trump has repeatedly sought to undermine public confidence in elections. The request in Washington is similar to a Justice Department attempt to require California to sequester mail ballots from up to 20,000 people the federal government suspects may not be citizens.
California has challenged that, and during rare Sunday arguments a panel of federal appellate judges questioned the timing, constitutionality and authority of the Justice Department’s demand. The Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution gives state legislatures the power to set the time, place and manner of congressional elections.
Los Angeles County Assistant Registrar-Recorder Monica Flores said in a court filing that her staff went through a sample of 200 records from the Trump administration’s list. They found the sample included canceled or inactive registrations, people with no voting history and voters who appeared to have been born in the United States.
The Justice Department told Washington it anticipates sending the state an additional list of people it suspects are not citizens prior to Election Day. It also noted that some of the people it suspects registered without citizenship may have since become naturalized.
Investigations into prior allegations of noncitizen voters have revealed far fewer instances than the Trump administration has claimed. In Nevada, Trump’s administration alleged there were 1,500 potential noncitizen voters on the rolls but subsequent investigation found zero.
In Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, the county recorder, who is a Trump supporter, announced that there were 207 possible noncitizens on the county’s rolls. The Republican County Attorney determined there were actually eight.
