Key takeaways:
- The Justice Department sent letters to all 50 states and Washington, D.C., giving officials five days to explain compliance with federal voter eligibility laws.
- The letters warned that election officials could face criminal liability for knowingly retaining noncitizens on voter rolls or facilitating their ballots.
- The Justice Department has faced repeated court losses in its effort to obtain voter roll data, including 11 district court losses reported by CBS News.
The Justice Department warned election officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia that they could face criminal prosecution if they knowingly allow non-U.S. citizens to vote or remain on voter rolls, escalating the Trump administration’s effort to press states over voter eligibility rules.
The letters, sent Tuesday and signed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the department’s Civil Rights Division, gave state officials five days to explain how they plan to comply with federal law and maintain “clean voter lists.”
“The Department sent these letters to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, asking for voluntary compliance in a timely manner with their obligations under federal law to ensure only citizens vote in federal elections,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement.
In identical letters reviewed by CBS News that were sent to officials in Arizona, Michigan and Maine, Dhillon wrote that “any election officer, including the chief election officer of the state, who knowingly retains noncitizens on the state’s [state voter registration list] or facilitates noncitizens in receiving and casting ballots could be subject to criminal liability.” She also wrote that it is a crime for two or more people to conspire to deprive people of their constitutional rights.
The letters said state election officers “could be criminally prosecuted for aiding and abetting” noncitizen voting, NBC News reported. They also said, “An intentional act that is aimed at diluting the votes of citizens could also constitute a violation” of federal law.
Noncitizen voting in federal elections is extremely rare. President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that people who are not U.S. citizens frequently vote in federal elections, and NBC News reported that Trump and his administration have falsely portrayed it as a widespread issue.
The letters are part of a broader Justice Department push involving state voter rolls. The department has been litigating against states in an effort to obtain unredacted voter roll data. The Civil Rights Division has said it wants to review the data for compliance with federal laws requiring states to maintain clean voter rolls. CBS News reported that the division has more recently acknowledged it plans to share the data with the Department of Homeland Security so the rolls can be screened for noncitizen voters, and that DHS intends to use data collected from voter rolls for criminal and immigration enforcement.
NBC News reported that the Justice Department has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., for resisting demands to hand over voter roll data, while some states have complied. CBS News reported the department has had 11 losses in district court so far in its fight for voter rolls, and that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit last month became the first federal appellate court to affirm one of those rulings, siding with Michigan.
Several state officials said they received the letters, including Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar and Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, according to NBC News.
Henderson wrote on social media that the threats amounted to “truly bizarre behavior.”
“Got another love letter this morning from the DOJ sprinkled throughout with threats of criminal prosecution,” she wrote. “I’m sure I’m not the only chief election officer of a state who is being targeted for following state and federal laws by resisting DOJ’s demands for private voter data that have thus far been ruled illegal by at least a dozen courts.”
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes also pushed back, saying in a statement that “the suggestion that Arizona election officials are failing to do their jobs is simply not supported by the facts.”
“It is insulting to insinuate that the good people at our county recorders’ offices across the state are not doing their jobs correctly,” Fontes, a Democrat, said. “Arizona election officials have always worked to ensure that only eligible citizens are registered to vote, and we will continue following Arizona law—not directions that come from political rhetoric or intimidation.”
Trump has also pressed the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require Americans to show proof of citizenship in person to register to vote, threatening not to sign other bills unless Congress acted. Earlier this year, he signed an executive order that would create federal lists of eligible voters and bar the U.S. Postal Service from mailing ballots to anyone not listed, but that measure was blocked by a federal judge.
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