DOJ sues California to block tabulation of ballots from alleged noncitizens
The Justice Department is seeking a court order to prevent California from counting votes from more than 20,000 people it claims are likely noncitizens.
What happened
On Thursday, the US Department of Justice filed a federal lawsuit against California seeking to block the state from tabulating mail-in ballots cast by individuals the department flagged as likely noncitizens. This followed a Tuesday demand in which the DOJ sent Los Angeles County election officials a thumb drive with a handwritten password containing names of purported noncitizen voters, giving the state 48 hours to act. The department provided no details on its methodology for identifying the 20,000+ names. Los Angeles County Clerk Dean Logan refused to review the list, citing security concerns with the USB drive transmission. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber stated the DOJ had not provided the list to her office and characterized the effort as an attempt to unlawfully access protected voter data.
Context
The Department of Homeland Security previously claimed as many as 278,000 noncitizens were on voter rolls in four states, but when Nevada officials investigated 185 names the DHS flagged as likely noncitizens, all were found to be citizens. Election law scholar Richard Hasen notes that federal law—the National Voter Registration Act—prohibits systematic voter purges in the 90 days before an election precisely to prevent removal of eligible voters, and warns that rushed processes risk disenfranchising eligible citizens. Concerns have been raised that the DOJ's relentless efforts to access voter data could cause chaos and undermine public trust in elections.
What's disputed
The accuracy and validity of the DOJ's methodology for identifying noncitizens. The security and reliability of the data transmission method. Whether the DOJ has legal standing to demand voter roll removals during an active election.