WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors in Washington state have asked election officials to temporarily set aside ballots from 405 registered voters whose U.S. citizenship is in question, escalating a dispute over voter eligibility and the accuracy of federal efforts to identify potential noncitizens on voter rolls ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
Neil Floyd, acting U.S. attorney in Seattle, and Pete Serrano, the top federal prosecutor in eastern Washington, said Monday that the Justice Department believes some of the identified voters may be lawful permanent residents, commonly known as green-card holders. Although they can legally live and work in the United States, noncitizens generally cannot vote in federal elections. Learn more about lawful permanent residents.
The prosecutors said they believe the individuals may have voted in multiple elections. Floyd estimated that more than 1,500 ballots had been illegally cast by the people identified, although those allegations have not been independently established.
“This is not the full number of noncitizens who have been voting in Washington,” Floyd said. “This is only the tip of the iceberg.”
DOJ Gives Washington Officials 48 Hours to Review Voter List
Floyd and Serrano said they sent Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs a list of 405 people whom the Justice Department believes are improperly registered to vote because they are not U.S. citizens.
The prosecutors asked the state to segregate any ballots cast by those individuals until election officials can verify their citizenship status.
In a letter dated Monday, the federal officials said information from the Department of Homeland Security indicated that some of the individuals had voted as recently as the August primaries. They also alleged that some had voted in Washington for more than a decade, with certain individuals casting ballots in more than two dozen elections.
The prosecutors said DHS was expected to provide another list of people it believes are noncitizens soon.
Floyd and Serrano gave Hobbs 48 hours, until Wednesday, to review the 405 names, determine whether the individuals are U.S. citizens and direct election officials not to count any ballots received from those whose citizenship had not been confirmed.
“If you cannot implement this process by then, given the ongoing federal election, the United States will have no choice but to seek emergency relief,” the prosecutors wrote.
As of the time of the request, the Justice Department had sent a letter to Washington officials but had not filed a lawsuit seeking to compel the state to set aside the ballots.
Washington Secretary of State Questions Accuracy of Federal List
Hobbs confirmed that his office received the Justice Department’s letter but questioned the accuracy of the information provided by federal officials.
According to the secretary of state’s office, the list included multiple records for people who appeared to have last voted in the 1990s. One record reportedly identified an individual whose last recorded vote was in 1994, even though more than 113 million primary and general election ballots have been cast since then.
“We take our responsibility to protect voter information seriously and will only respond to requests that follow due process. We saw what happened in California and don’t want Washingtonians to be harassed,” Hobbs said in a statement.
Hobbs also questioned the timing of the request, which came one week before the November 3 election. He said the timing was “no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results.”
The disagreement highlights a central issue in the dispute: federal prosecutors say their review identified potentially ineligible voters, while Washington election officials have raised concerns that inaccurate records could put eligible citizens’ voting rights at risk.
Federal Lawsuit Over Washington Voter Rolls Was Dismissed
The latest request follows an earlier dispute over access to Washington’s voter registration records.
Last year, the Justice Department sought the state’s unredacted voter registration list. After Hobbs declined to provide the information, the Trump administration sued Washington to obtain records that include voters’ names, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.
A federal judge dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit last month, according to CBS News’ reporting on the federal voter-roll lawsuits.
The Trump administration has filed lawsuits against 30 states and the District of Columbia seeking access to their complete voter registration records. According to the report, 27 of those cases had been dismissed by federal judges, while three remained pending. One case involving Oklahoma was voluntarily dismissed.
During a news conference, Floyd said that because Washington declined to provide its unredacted voter rolls, DHS compared publicly available voter registration information with government records to identify individuals allegedly lacking U.S. citizenship. The administration then conducted additional investigations to determine whether those individuals had voted in Washington, he said.
However, the secretary of state’s office warned that the federal identification process could mistakenly flag U.S. citizens as noncitizens, potentially placing their voting rights at risk.
Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, and instances of noncitizen voting are rare.
“At a time when thousands of Washington voters already face ballot rejections due to delayed postmarks, our focus should be on ensuring every eligible voter can exercise their right to vote, not creating additional uncertainty about their eligibility,” Hobbs said.
Washington Request Follows Similar Action in California
The Justice Department’s request in Washington comes after federal officials contacted election authorities in California earlier this month about ballots cast by registered voters whose citizenship they questioned.
In those cases, the department asked California election officials to separate mail ballots from individuals identified as potential noncitizens and verify their citizenship before counting the ballots.
Read the related reports from CBS News:
- DOJ asks California counties to set aside certain ballots over noncitizen concerns
- Justice Department asks California officials to separate mail ballots
- DOJ sues California over mail ballots from voters it believes are noncitizens
The Justice Department subsequently sued California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan. It asked a federal court to prevent the state from counting mail ballots received from approximately 20,000 people whom the department believes may be noncitizens until their citizenship status could be verified.
A hearing on the request was scheduled for Tuesday. Meanwhile, a separate effort by the Trump administration to obtain an order from a federal appeals court was dismissed Monday night, according to CBS News.
In Washington, the immediate question remains whether state election officials can verify the citizenship status of the 405 people identified by federal prosecutors within the deadline.
The Justice Department has threatened to seek emergency court intervention if Washington does not implement the requested process. No lawsuit seeking that specific relief had been filed against Washington at the time of the request.
