Justice Department sues California over ballots sent to alleged noncitizens
publishers 33articles 36first reported 14 Oct, 13:25 UTCdeveloping since 14 Oct · 17 editions
The Justice Department sued California on Thursday, asking a federal judge to prevent the state from counting mail ballots cast by people whom the federal government identifies as likely noncitizens until their citizenship can be verified.
The complaint, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, followed a 48-hour deadline issued Tuesday by acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter. In letters to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan, McCotter said federal officials had provided Los Angeles County with a password-protected thumb drive containing names of people believed to be noncitizens who had received ballots for the Nov. 3 election.
The department instructed election officials to segregate, rather than cancel, returned ballots associated with people whose citizenship could not be confirmed. It also asked officials to withhold ballots from listed individuals who had not yet received them. The number of people on the federal list was not disclosed.
California officials have challenged the reliability of the federal government’s allegations. Weber’s office said Thursday that it had previously requested details about the methodology and data supporting federal claims that noncitizens were registered in the state. Gov. Gavin Newsom said California would defend eligible voters’ ability to participate and accused the administration of demanding that state election officials violate federal law.
Noncitizens are prohibited from voting in federal elections. The lawsuit asks the court to require California to verify the citizenship of the identified voters before their ballots are counted.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 5 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 24 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
- Publishers
- 33
- Source articles
- 36
- Given to the writer
- 8, 5 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 8
- This version written
- 24 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
- Publication gate
- passed
- Human review
- none
WHAT THE EDITOR DID
The second model checked the writer's draft against the same sources and published it as written.
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