Justice Department Gives California Counties 48 Hours to Set Aside Mail Ballots of Voters It Calls 'Likely Aliens.' Here Is What the Original Letter Asked

The U.S. Justice Department on Friday sent letters to election offices in 57 of California's 58 counties demanding that, within 48 hours, they review federal lists of voters the government believes are "likely" noncitizens and set aside mail ballots from anyone whose citizenship they cannot confirm, according to the Los Angeles Times, NBC News and the San Francisco Chronicle. The letters warn that officials who count those ballots could face criminal exposure.

The demand builds on a letter the department hand-delivered on Oct. 13 to Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder, which was published by Democracy Docket and posted by California Secretary of State Shirley Weber's office. Boston Uncut reviewed that letter, which lays out the mechanics the counties are now being asked to follow.

The Oct. 13 letter, signed by an acting deputy attorney general, says it was accompanied by "a password-protected thumb drive with a list of names of people the Federal Government believes are likely noncitizens who were sent a vote-by-mail ballot." It asks the county to review the list within 48 hours. For anyone whose citizenship the county cannot independently confirm, it asks officials to "segregate—not cancel" their ballots. If a ballot has not yet been mailed, it asks the county not to send one. And if a ballot has already been returned, it asks officials "to not verify the signature and/or tabulate the ballot until citizenship can be determined." It set a deadline of noon Oct. 15 and warned that otherwise "the United States will have no choice but to seek emergency relief."

The letter puts the burden on the county to prove citizenship rather than on the government to prove noncitizenship. It cites the federal law that makes it a crime for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and a 1973 Supreme Court decision, Norwood v. Harrison, for the principle that a state may not induce private persons to do what the state itself cannot.

Weber's office said in a statement that the Los Angeles registrar confirmed the list arrived on a protected thumb drive "with the password indicated on a sticky note," and that her office never received the list itself. Weber said the department had refused to explain the methodology behind earlier claims that California had 190,000 noncitizens on its rolls. Logan later wrote to county election officials that only his office, not the secretary of state, received a list, the Chronicle reported.

When Weber and Logan declined to comply, the department sued them and the state, according to the Times. The department has asked a federal court to block California from counting about 20,000 mail ballots, NBC News reported, and on Thursday asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to impose restrictions before the trial judge ruled. A hearing in federal district court in Los Angeles is scheduled for Tuesday, the Times reported. Weber's office said in a court filing quoted in a statement that the lawsuit is "at best ... a reckless political stunt" and "at worst" threatens "to disenfranchise thousands of Californians," and said Los Angeles County found "significant accuracy problems" in a sample of the federal data.

The county-by-county numbers in Friday's letters are specific. The letter to San Bernardino County listed 1,133 "likely aliens," NBC News reported. Contra Costa County received 407 names and Santa Clara County 902, according to the Chronicle; Merced County received 177 and Santa Cruz County 81, according to the Chronicle and the Times.

"The letters speak for themselves. Any election official who knowingly processes the ballot of a noncitizen is opening themselves to legal jeopardy," said Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles. County officials pushed back. "This threat is not helpful and is intended to intimidate," Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder Kristin Connelly told the Times. Santa Cruz County Clerk Tricia Webber, president of the state clerks' association, said two people with Justice Department credentials handed her the letter in a manila envelope. "This is not normal protocol for us," she said.

Context matters for scale. The Chronicle reported that on Monday the department announced charges against 28 people for voter fraud, 23 of them accused of casting 34 illegal ballots in elections going back to 2020. Separately, a federal judge in Oakland this week blocked the Department of Homeland Security from carrying out certain operations aimed at finding voter fraud in several states, citing errors in the government's methods, the Chronicle reported. Federal law already makes noncitizen voting a crime, and California requires registrants to attest to citizenship under penalty of perjury.

Still unclear: how the federal government compiled its lists, how many of the roughly 20,000 names belong to citizens, and whether any county will comply before a court rules. The Nov. 3 general election is nine days away.