Justice Department Asks Washington to Set Aside Ballots From 405 Voters It Says May Be Noncitizens

The leaders of the two United States Attorney's Offices for Washington state on Monday called on state election officials to set aside ballots cast by more than 400 people who, the Justice Department says, appear to be illegally registered to vote. In letters to Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, the department said it had identified 405 people and 1,500 votes those people cast in earlier elections, and it asked the state to segregate any ballots they cast in next month's midterm elections until officials can confirm that they are legally eligible to vote.

What the department says it found

Acting United States Attorney Neil Floyd of Seattle said many of the people on the list are lawful permanent residents, or green card holders, who hold legal immigration status but are not citizens and may not vote in United States elections. The department said it has heard from green card holders who were registered without their knowledge through the Washington Motor Voter program, who then received a ballot in the mail and assumed they were legally registered, which the department said is not the case. "We are asking the state to set aside those ballots until we can confirm they are legal voters," Floyd said. "Because of limitations the state has placed on our investigation, we've only been able to uncover a fraction of the total number."

Floyd said the investigation began after Hobbs refused a Trump administration request for Washington's full voter rolls, and that prosecutors compared people they already knew to be noncitizens against registration and voting records assembled without the state's help.

Hobbs disputes the timing and the record

Hobbs said he was reviewing the request. His office noted that the data the department shared included the last time each of the 405 people voted, and that one of them last voted in 1994. "The timing of this request, one week before the General Election, is no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results," Hobbs said. In a statement reported by Democracy Docket, he added: "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 also pointed to the record in his state. He said there have been only 15 documented instances of illegal voting in Washington since 1982. His office said it has received about 60 subpoenas from the Justice Department since last month seeking information about voters. He noted that federal law bars state and county election officials from removing voters from the registration lists in the 90 days before an election, a period known as the quiet period, and said his office follows federal and state law protections so that eligible citizens have their ballots counted. Washington has more than 5 million registered voters, and the state mails a ballot to every one of them.

The third state challenge this month

The Washington request is the third time this month that the Justice Department has brought a direct state challenge while voting is under way, after similar moves in California and Alaska, states with House or Senate races that will help decide the balance of power in Congress. The Washington letters came less than two weeks after a similar demand in California.