Los Angeles federal prosecutor warns of possible non-citizen voting as ballot dispute heads to court

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli told The California Post that it is "very highly likely" non-citizens have already cast ballots in Los Angeles County, as the Justice Department seeks a court order to have California set aside more than 20,000 ballots tied to suspected non-citizen voters.

Essayli and U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche are asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to require the state to verify the citizenship of those voters before counting the ballots. The dispute stems from a list of over 20,000 individuals that California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan did not review within the timeframe requested by the Justice Department.

"Our biggest fear is they’re just going to try to run out the clock until all the ballots have been processed, in which case there will be nothing we’ll be able to do after the election," Essayli said, referencing recent state elections with narrow margins.

The county began early in-person voting for the November 3 election on Saturday at 123 vote centers, with additional sites slated to open the following weekend. Essayli warned that in-person ballots are processed immediately, raising concerns that any illegal votes could be counted before verification.

Federal agents recently arrested 28 individuals in a statewide operation targeting the same list of suspected non-citizen voters, charging them with fraudulent registration and voting.

"All of them were registered to vote and some of them voted in multiple elections. So this is not a theory," Essayli said.

Essayli questioned why state officials were resisting the Justice Department’s effort, noting that opponents have described the alleged illegal voting as a "small percentage" of overall voters.

"So what percentage is acceptable? I’d like to know from California," he added.

The Justice Department previously provided Los Angeles County with a password-protected thumb drive containing the names of the suspected non-citizen mail-in ballot recipients. Dean Logan said he had not accessed the drive, citing security concerns.

"What are they afraid of? Why are they refusing to work with us to figure this out? If they’re so confident that their records are so good and non-citizens aren’t voting, then they should have nothing to worry about," Essayli said.