“They will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!” Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, sharing a federal warning directed squarely at California election officials just weeks before the November 3 midterm elections.
The U.S. Justice Department warned Los Angeles County and California election officials on Friday, October 16, that they could be liable as abettors of a federal crime. The warning targets officials if they count mail ballots returned by more than 20,000 individuals whom the Trump administration says are probably noncitizens.
Peter Bollinger, the assistant counsel for Los Angeles County, received the caution just under three weeks prior to the November 3 midterm elections. It followed a 48-hour window for California to review a list of alleged noncitizen voters or face legal action. On Thursday, the Justice Department sued California to block the state from counting the ballots.
“Noncitizen voting in a federal election is a federal crime — and knowingly facilitating such conduct is equally unlawful,” Trent McCotter, the acting U.S. deputy attorney general, wrote in the official letter released on Friday. McCotter urged the county and California Secretary of State Shirley Weber to reconsider their refusal to take steps the Trump administration argues are needed to deter voter fraud.
The Battle Over Voter Data and Legal Compliance
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan were both copied on McCotter’s correspondence. Weber’s office referred to an earlier statement in which she said the Justice Department’s attempts to “unlawfully gain access to states’ protected voter data and purge voter rolls serve only to cause chaos and fuel public distrust in our elections.”
According to Harrison on Thursday, the county is unable to fulfill the Justice Department demands because the Trump administration failed to clarify how it compiled the list. Friday’s letter from McCotter said the Justice Department used “internal immigration records” and data matching.
In an earlier letter sent on Tuesday to Weber and Logan, McCotter noted that the Justice Department provided Los Angeles County officials with a “password-protected thumb drive” with the names of people the federal government “believes are likely noncitizens” that were sent mail-in ballots from California.
National Scope and Historical Precedents of Verification Scrutiny
During July, Trump announced that his administration had found proof showing upwards of 275,000 non-citizens on voter registration rolls. However, it was not clear how many had actually voted.
Studies have found that noncitizens casting actual ballots is exceedingly uncommon. In some previous cases, systems intended to verify citizenship have mistakenly flagged some naturalized U.S. citizens as noncitizens.
The Justice Department has increased its pursuit of individuals charged with unlawful voting without U.S. citizenship since July. Based on an internal email reviewed by Reuters, the White House additionally urged federal agencies to speed up their evaluation of at least 47 state voter rolls acquired by the Department of Homeland Security.
As the November 3 midterm elections approach, the standoff continues. The county’s counsel office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
