DOJ targets California counties

The Department of Justice sent letters Friday to fifty-seven of California's fifty-eight counties demanding they cooperate to identify noncitizens on voter rolls or face legal action.

The demand and the deadline

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bilal Essayli told San Bernardino County Registrar Joani Finwall to commit within forty-eight hours to working with DOJ and DHS to identify citizenship status on a list of one thousand one…

The threat to election officials

Essayli warned that sending mail-in ballots to people on the list or tabulating their ballots until citizenship is verified carries significant legal consequences for election officials.

“The legal consequences for either facilitating or ignoring federal crimes are significant.”

Segregate, not cancel

For voters whose citizenship cannot be confirmed, Essayli asked counties to immediately instruct election officials to segregate, not cancel, those individuals' mail-in ballots until citizenship status can be determined.

“immediately instruct the appropriate elections official to segregate, not cancel, those individuals' vote-by-mail ballots”

Noncitizen voting is a federal crime

Essayli stated that an alien voting in a federal election is a federal crime, and knowingly facilitating such conduct is equally unlawful, opening election officials to legal jeopardy.

“Any election official who knowingly processes the ballot of a noncitizen is opening themselves to legal jeopardy.”

Broader administration strategy

The Trump administration has made pursuit of noncitizen voters a priority before the midterms and has singled out heavily Democratic California, suing to block counting of more than twenty thousand mail-in ballots.

Democrats reject the claims

Senator Alex Padilla of California said Trump's DOJ has provided no evidence of massive voter fraud and that the data is inaccurate and unreliable, denying the administration authority to interfere.

“Trump's DOJ has not provided any evidence for their claims of massive voter fraud.”

Appeal to higher court

On Thursday, the administration asked the ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to impose ballot restrictions before the lower court has ruled in the case, escalating the legal fight.