Justice Department charges 28 California residents in voter fraud case

The Justice Department has charged 28 lawful permanent residents in California with election-related offenses, saying 21 cast unlawful ballots as it presses the state to review a separate list of more than 20,000 people it believes may be noncitizens on the voter rolls.

Eleven of the defendants had been taken into custody by Monday, and arrests were continuing, the department said. The defendants have legal status in the United States but are not citizens and cannot vote. The charges include making false statements and fraudulently registering to vote. The Guardian reported that some defendants also face allegations involving naturalization applications, and that the alleged felonies could carry five-year prison terms.

The arrests follow a Justice Department lawsuit seeking to prevent California from counting certain ballots in November’s midterm elections. Federal officials previously sent Los Angeles County election officials a list of people they said were “likely noncitizens” who had been mailed ballots. They demanded that officials check their citizenship within 48 hours and set aside ballots from anyone whose status remained unconfirmed.

California officials dispute the basis for that demand. Attorney General Rob Bonta said Monday that federal officials had provided a list of names but “no basis, fact, evidence, substantiation, backing” for the claim that those people were ineligible. He called the criminal cases “a drop in the bucket” compared with the state’s roughly 23 million registered voters.

“We are not impressed by their case, we are not impressed by their position,” Bonta said. “We believe their case is meritless and we’ll make our position very clear in court.”

Secretary of State Shirley Weber called the federal demands “outrageous.” In a letter last week, she said the Department of Homeland Security had initially claimed in July that more than 190,000 registered California voters “may be” noncitizens, then revised the figure to 20,000 without disclosing details of its data or methods. She said treating everyone on the list as ineligible until proven otherwise would violate a federal restriction on systematic voter-roll removals shortly before an election.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter acknowledged that the list could include citizens. “We’re not perfect, and that’s why we’ve asked California to cooperate with us,” he said. He described 190,000 as a ceiling and 20,000 as a floor, saying officials had the most confidence in the smaller group.

The Guardian reported that court documents suggest at least some defendants were confused about whether they could vote. One, Erick Ronaldo Soto, told investigators he said he was not a citizen when he went to vote, but poll workers told him he could cast a ballot that would be checked for validity. He said he submitted a blank ballot. The account appears in an investigator’s affidavit.

McCotter also warned election officials on Friday that knowingly helping someone vote illegally could lead to prosecution. Asked Monday about election workers, he cited the legal principle of aiding and abetting.

Noncitizen voting is extremely rare, according to the accounts of election experts cited by The Guardian. The Justice Department said Monday that federal prosecutors had charged 112 people across 20 states in recent weeks with alleged registration offenses and illegal voting.