Federal actions on voting systems intensify ahead of midterm elections
Select a version of the text written from a presumed ideological perspective. This is not the original text, but a hypothetical version — how someone with that viewpoint might have phrased it. Tapping the current version again will return to the original or select cleaned version.
The Justice Department has sued California over mail-in ballots and is demanding voter data from states, while election officials report increased federal scrutiny as early voting proceeds.
Federal officials have stepped up actions related to the U.S. voting system as early voting for the midterm elections continues. The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against California, alleging the state mailed ballots to more than 20,000 individuals it considers likely noncitizens. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said the federal government had not explained how it identified those voters and questioned the accuracy of the data.
"The Justice Department's relentless efforts to unlawfully gain access to states' protected voter data and purge voter rolls serve only to cause chaos and fuel public distrust in our elections," Weber said in a statement.
The department has also requested detailed voter rolls, including social security numbers and dates of birth, from nearly every state. Utah Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson, who oversees elections in the state, said she was not given satisfactory answers about the purpose of the request and refused to turn over the information. Officials in 29 other states have similarly declined to comply, prompting lawsuits from the Justice Department.
The Trump administration argues that accessing voter rolls will help remove immigrant voters who are not eligible to vote, citing an unverified claim that 278,000 noncitizens are registered. A White House spokesperson said noncitizens "continue to register and vote in federal elections," though officials note that such voting is extremely rare. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill reported a software glitch that mistakenly registered thousands of noncitizens, resulting in about 340 votes.
Since the start of Mr. Trump’s second term, the Justice Department has charged more than 100 noncitizens with illegal voting. In Utah, Henderson found only 52 questionable entries among more than 2 million registered voters.
In January, federal agents seized ballots and other election materials from a facility in Fulton County, Georgia, under a search warrant the state described as containing "baseless and repackaged claims." Fulton County Commissioner Dana Barrett said the seizure resulted in more than 600 boxes of records being removed, and she expressed uncertainty about their current location.
Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, told 60 Minutes that the agency is pursuing investigations into thousands of possible noncitizen voting cases and expects a record number of election observers at midterm polls. She described concerns about Mr. Trump challenging the results as "paranoia" and said there should be no interruption in the counting and certification of results unless an unexpected event occurs.