Federal Prosecutors Demand California County Registrars Set Aside Ballots DOJ Says May Belong to Noncitizens
Federal prosecutors sent letters to county registrars across California on Friday demanding that local officials set aside and verify ballots that the Department of Justice said may belong to noncitizens, according to the Los Angeles County registrar and a letter obtained by the Associated Press.
Earlier this month, the federal government targeted Los Angeles County and the California Secretary of State's office in a lawsuit aimed at blocking them from counting the votes of roughly 20,000 people it described as likely noncitizen voters.
The AP report also notes that data shows illegal voting by people who aren't U.S. citizens is incredibly rare, difficult to prove, and has not been shown to change the outcome of races. That makes the letters a fight over suspicion and procedure as much as over illegal voting.
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A ballot set aside because citizenship cannot be verified is, for now, a vote that isn't counted. California's lawyers say the request threatens to delay certification and undermine the legitimacy of the November midterms.
The letter asks counties to set aside and verify, not simply to discard; verification is written into the demand.
The clock is the hard part: at least 18 counties were given 48 hours to provide identifying information corresponding to the ballots in question.