The Department of Justice sent letters Tuesday to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder and Clerk Dean Logan, demanding they review a list of “likely noncitizens” who were automatically sent mail-in ballots for the November 3 federal election. The DOJ gave them 48 hours to respond. Tick tock, Shirley.
The letters, obtained by the Washington Examiner, came with password-protected thumb drives identifying “thousands” of people flagged as possible noncitizens who received vote-by-mail ballots. The names span the entire state, not just Los Angeles County. California’s system, which automatically mails voting materials to “every registered voter,” apparently does not pause to ask whether you’re actually, you know, a citizen.
This all traces back to July, when Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin first warned Weber that there are “likely numerous noncitizens registered to vote in the federal election in California.” He asked her to check his findings DOJ California noncitizen voter list to “prevent noncitizen votes from diluting citizen votes.” Weber asked for more information back then, and Tuesday’s letters were California’s answer to that request. Be careful what you ask for.
The DOJ was pretty blunt about what it wants done. If California officials cannot independently confirm citizenship status tied to a ballot, they are instructed to contact the relevant precinct and have those ballots “segregated” until citizenship is confirmed. Officials are also told to intercept ballots that have not yet been mailed out. The letter warned that if California cannot get this done in time, “the United States will have no choice but to seek emergency relief.
A DOJ spokesperson said the whole thing really should not be a fight at all. “This should not be controversial, as the criminal statute is clear: only American citizens may vote in federal elections. It is a federal crime for noncitizens to vote in U.S. elections, and the DOJ is asking California to ensure that is not occurring.” Radical stuff, apparently.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who wrote the letters, has been a consistent critic of California’s voter roll practices. He previously alleged the state was “blocking a federal audit of its voter rolls” after some eyebrow-raising vote jumps in the Los Angeles mayoral primary.
Meanwhile, Governor Gavin Newsom has been busy signing a pile of new election bills designed to limit law enforcement involvement with ballots and election administration. The measures create new felony penalties for seizing ballots or election records and restrict certain law-enforcement activity near polling places. Newsom is essentially building a moat around California’s election system, and he’d rather you not look too closely at who’s voting inside the castle.
California officials now have to decide whether to cooperate with the 48-hour deadline or force the DOJ into court seeking emergency relief. Either way, the November election is right around the corner, and the question of whether thousands of noncitizens cast ballots in a federal race is not going to sort itself out. Funny how that works.
