Photo: Cacophony / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
The U.S. Justice Department has asked Washington state not to count any mail ballots received from more than 400 residents it says may not be U.S. citizens, opening a new front in the Trump administration's push over election administration just one week before the November 3 midterm elections.
In a letter dated October 26, the top federal prosecutors in Seattle and Spokane asked Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, the state's top elections official, to determine whether the more than 400 people were in fact U.S. citizens — and not to count their ballots until their citizenship was determined. The letter said the Justice Department would seek "emergency relief" if the state could not take those actions by noon local time on Wednesday.
What the department says it found
According to the Associated Press, the Justice Department said it had identified 1,500 votes cast by the more than 400 people in prior elections. At a news conference, Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd put the number identified so far at 405 and called them "the tip of the iceberg," saying limitations placed on the investigation by the state meant only a fraction of the total had been uncovered.
"We are asking the state to set aside those ballots until we can confirm they are legal voters," Floyd said. The department said much of its list was built from "recent contacts" with suspected noncitizens, because federal officers now routinely check whether people they interact with are registered to vote. One person on the list last cast a ballot in 1994, according to the secretary of state's office.
Why Washington, why now
Washington has more than 5 million registered voters and conducts its elections entirely by mail, with ballots issued to every registered voter. That makes a request to set aside ballots a statewide administrative question, not a single-county dispute — and it comes as Republicans fight to retain slim majorities in both chambers of Congress. Reuters notes that the campaign of centrist Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who is defending a southwest Washington seat, is one of 10 key House races that could decide control of the chamber.
The request resembles one made earlier this month in California, where the department asked the state not to count ballots from around 20,000 alleged noncitizens. California challenged that demand, and during rare Sunday arguments a panel of federal appellate judges questioned the timing, constitutionality and authority of the Justice Department's request.
What the state says
Hobbs said he was reviewing the administration's demand. His office noted it had received about 60 subpoenas from the Justice Department since last month seeking information about voters, and Hobbs said the state would only respond to requests that follow due process.
"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." He also said the timing of the request, one week before the general election, "is no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results."
What is — and is not — established
The department's claim is that the listed people may not be citizens; it has not publicly established that any of them voted illegally in the coming election, and the ballots at issue are ones they might cast in the midterm, to be set aside pending a citizenship check. Multiple state audits and independent studies have found that voter fraud, including voting by noncitizens, is very rare and has not affected election outcomes.
The immediate question is now procedural: whether Washington agrees to sequester the ballots by Wednesday noon, or whether the Justice Department follows through on its threat of emergency court action — and whether a court, as in California, questions a federal intervention in state-run elections this close to voting day.
Sources: Reuters (letter, prosecutors, deadline, California comparison, House-race context); Associated Press via The Hindu, KXL and The Economic Times (1,500 prior votes, 405 people, Floyd quotes, Hobbs statement, subpoenas, 1994 voter, all-mail voting). Claims that listed voters may not be citizens are attributed to the Justice Department; they are not established findings.