DOJ Seeks to Block California From Counting 20,000 Suspected Noncitizen Ballots
Federal officials claim California has 20,000 ballots from suspected noncitizens, prompting a legal battle over election integrity.
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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is pushing to block California from counting more than 20,000 mail-in ballots linked to individuals suspected of being noncitizens, arguing that these ballots could compromise the integrity of federal elections. The dispute has escalated after a federal court failed to act on an earlier request from DOJ officials to review the citizenship status of these voters.
DOJ Claims 20,000 Ballots May Be From Noncitizens
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli and Attorney General Todd Blanche are leading the effort, which seeks a court ruling by Saturday. Federal officials say U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Homeland Security Investigations reviewed California voter registration data against federal immigration records and identified over 20,000 registered voters who received mail ballots and are considered highly likely to be noncitizens.
Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections. Essayli told Fox News that the 20,000 figure is the floor, and more names are expected. Some individuals on the list have already been criminally charged for alleged illegal registration or voting as part of an effort labeled Operation Protect the Vote.
California Officials Reject DOJ’s Request
The DOJ delivered a password-protected thumb drive containing the list to Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean C. Logan’s office and sent letters giving state and county officials 48 hours to review the names, confirm citizenship where possible, and segregate any ballots from those whose citizenship could not be verified. Logan’s office said it had not opened the drive because doing so would conflict with data privacy and information security protocols, and the device was not considered a secure medium.
California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber’s office said it had not provided the list to her directly and that earlier federal claims of roughly 190,000 potential noncitizens had never been backed by methodology or data.
Legal Battle Over Ballot Counting
After the deadline passed, the DOJ sued in federal court in Los Angeles, asking a judge to bar the state from tabulating ballots until it could confirm citizenship. In a statement, Blanche said, “State-facilitated voter fraud is unacceptable in the United States of America. If found responsible in a court of law, the State of California will have seriously undermined confidence in our electoral system and violated laws that protect our nation’s representative system of government.”
Essayli added, “We’re not asking California to take any drastic steps other than to sequester the ballots from the suspected noncitizens,” and said ballots have already been sent out and are being returned. Los Angeles County has already processed more than 331,000 mail-in ballots.
Officials argue that once ballots are separated from their envelopes, it becomes practically impossible to identify and set aside individual ones without disrupting the entire count. Over 7,000 of the flagged names have addresses in Los Angeles County. The state began mailing ballots in early October.
Supreme Court Allows Use of SAVE System
Later last month, the Supreme Court allowed states to use the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system to check voter eligibility for now, after a lower court blocked the expanded version. Trump signed an executive order directing the creation of a federal voter-registration list and new restrictions on mail voting.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said, “It is unlawful for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. The Department of Homeland Security and our federal partners reviewed publicly available California voter-registration files and compared relevant records with federal immigration data to identify alien registrants. This preliminary analysis has identified a significant number of individuals in California who are likely noncitizens and appear to be registered to vote; the analysis and review remain ongoing. This is completely unacceptable — as even one noncitizen vote cancels out the ballot of an American citizen and undermines our elections. DHS is committed to identifying unlawful voting, protecting the integrity of federal elections, and ensuring that only eligible American citizens elect America’s leaders.”
Source: The Gateway Pundit
