Justice Department escalates California voter-roll dispute with lawsuit and arrests
publishers 64articles 79first reported 14 Oct, 13:25 UTCdeveloping since 14 Oct · 11 editions
The Justice Department has escalated a dispute with California over alleged noncitizen voting, suing the state, seeking an emergency order to set aside about 20,000 mail ballots and arresting more than two dozen foreign nationals accused of election-related offenses.
The department says federal agencies identified more than 20,000 likely noncitizens who were registered and sent ballots for the Nov. 3 midterm election. It gave California officials 48 hours to review names delivered on a password-protected thumb drive, then sued after officials declined. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said her office did not receive the list and accused the department of demanding an eleventh-hour review based on unverifiable information. Los Angeles County officials said they would not access the drive because it did not meet security protocols.
The department subsequently asked a federal court to temporarily prevent ballots linked to the listed names from being counted until citizenship could be verified. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter also warned California and Los Angeles County officials that knowingly tabulating ballots cast by noncitizens could expose them to criminal investigation and prosecution.
On Monday, federal authorities arrested more than two dozen lawful permanent residents in California. The Justice Department said they were not U.S. citizens and had illegally registered or voted; charges include false statements on naturalization applications and fraudulent voter registrations.
The League of United Latin American Citizens and the NAACP have asked to intervene in the lawsuit, arguing that the requested changes could improperly affect eligible voters while voting is underway. Noncitizen voting is illegal in federal elections, but available data indicates it is rare.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 6 with the publisher's own text; 7 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 120 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
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- Source articles
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- Given to the writer
- 8, 6 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 7
- This version written
- 120 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
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- passed
- Human review
- none
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