The Justice Department dropped the hammer on California Friday, warning state election officials that counting ballots cast by suspected noncitizens could land them in federal prison. And President Trump made it perfectly clear he means business, posting that the lawbreakers “will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!”
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli laid out exactly what California is facing. Federal agencies identified over 20,000 suspected noncitizens registered to vote in California who have already been mailed ballots,” Essayli said Friday. He cited federal law directly, noting that “under 18 U.S.C. §§ 611 and 2, officials who knowingly tabulate unlawful ballots risk aiding and abetting a federal offense.” He urged both the county and the Secretary of State to “temporarily segregate the flagged ballots pending citizenship verification or face legal consequences.” So, you know, pretty straightforward stuff. Unless you’re California, apparently.
The DOJ didn’t just send a strongly worded letter and call it a day. Federal agencies, including Homeland Security Investigations, actually went through voter registration records and conducted additional verification work to identify the potential noncitizens. This wasn’t a guess. This was a full federal investigation landing on California’s doorstep with receipts. You can read more about the DOJ’s California ballot lawsuit and how it all unfolded.
The Justice Department had given California a 48-hour window to act before facing emergency legal action. That deadline came and went. So on October 15, the DOJ filed a federal lawsuit in the Central District of California requesting a court order to stop the tabulation of ballots belonging to individuals identified as likely noncitizens until their citizenship status can be confirmed. California didn’t blink. So the feds sued.
Here’s how California got itself into this mess in the first place. Under state law, all registered active voters are automatically mailed ballots. Every single one. No questions asked. That cozy little arrangement is now at the center of the DOJ’s concerns, because it turns out automatically mailing ballots to everyone on your voter rolls gets messy fast when noncitizens end up on those rolls. Shocking, truly.
California Democrats have spent years insisting their elections are airtight while simultaneously making it as easy as possible to vote with as little verification as possible. Now the federal government has found more than 20,000 reasons to disagree, and the courts are involved. The next step is a federal judge deciding whether California has to sequester those flagged ballots before they get counted. If state officials keep dragging their feet, they may find out firsthand that federal prosecutors aren’t as easy to ignore as the voters back home.
