DOJ pressures California counties to scour voter rolls with dubious ‘likely alien’ list
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The Justice Department sent letters to 57 California counties demanding they help hunt for supposed non-citizen voters from a list of 1,133 names, threatening legal consequences if officials continue processing ballots from people whose citizenship has not been proven.
The U.S. Department of Justice sent letters on Friday to 57 of California’s 58 counties, demanding that local election officials coordinate with the department and the Department of Homeland Security to verify the citizenship status of people on a list of 1,133 "likely aliens."
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bilal Essayli wrote that the counties must, within 48 hours, commit to identifying which names on the list belong to citizens and which do not. He warned that continuing to send or count vote-by-mail ballots for individuals whose status cannot be verified could expose officials to legal liability.
"I write to make unmistakably clear the legal implications of continuing to send vote-by-mail ballots to those people on the list or tabulating ballots cast by them until citizenship can be verified," Essayli said.
For voters whose citizenship cannot be confirmed, the letter instructed counties to segregate, rather than cancel, their mail ballots until verification is possible. Essayli emphasized that facilitating a non-citizen's vote in a federal election constitutes a federal crime, and knowingly assisting such conduct is also unlawful.
"Any election official who knowingly processes the ballot of a noncitizen is opening themselves to legal jeopardy," he added.
Senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat from California, said the Justice Department has not produced evidence of widespread voter fraud and described the data cited as inaccurate and unreliable. He argued that the department lacks authority to meddle in state election processes.