The US Department of Justice filed suit in federal court seeking to prevent California from counting ballots cast by individuals the department alleged were noncitizens in the midterm elections. The legal action followed the department’s delivery to Los Angeles County election officials of a list containing more than 20,000 names on a thumb drive, accompanied by a request to verify citizenship status and set aside ballots from those who could not be confirmed as citizens within 48 hours.
Los Angeles County Clerk Dean Logan declined to comply with the request, citing concerns about the security of the USB drive and the lack of supporting documentation. Logan stated that the office could not withhold ballot counts based on unverified allegations and lacked authority to act on records outside its jurisdiction. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a Democrat, said the justice department had not provided the voter list to her office and characterized the federal action as unlawfully seeking access to protected voter data.
The Justice Department’s lawsuit asks the court to order California to set aside mail-in ballots from individuals it flagged as likely noncitizens pending independent verification of citizenship status. The department’s identification methodology has faced scrutiny following a separate effort involving the Department of Homeland Security, which provided Nevada with 185 names of individuals it believed were noncitizens. Nevada officials investigating those names determined that all of them were actually citizens.
Election law scholar Richard Hasen of UCLA characterized the Justice Department’s approach as a “publicity stunt” and noted that the National Voter Registration Act prohibits systematic voter purges during the 90-day period before an election to prevent the removal of eligible voters. Hasen contended that a rushed verification process would likely result in the disenfranchisement of eligible voters mistakenly flagged as noncitizens.
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