Justice Department asks Washington to set aside some election ballots

The Justice Department asked Washington state on Monday to set aside any ballots cast by more than 400 registered voters it suspects are not U.S. citizens, extending a push to challenge voter eligibility just a week before the midterm election.

In a letter to Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, the department gave Washington 24 hours to review its list for citizenship records, according to NBC News. It asked the state to keep any ballots from those voters separate until officials confirm they are eligible. Washington sends mail ballots to all its registered voters, who number more than 5 million.

The Guardian reported that the department identified 405 people on its list and said they had cast about 1,500 votes in previous elections. The data included the last time each person voted; for one, that was 1994, Hobbs’ office said. The department also acknowledged that some people on the list may have become naturalized citizens since registering, and said it expected to send Washington another list before Election Day.

“We have identified over 400 non-citizens who are registered to vote and have voted in multiple elections,” acting U.S. attorney Charles Neil Floyd said in a news release. “This is only the tip of the iceberg. We will continue to investigate and identify those who are committing crimes by voting illegally.”

Floyd said his office had compared voter registrations with records of lawful permanent residents, NBC News reported. He also said federal officers had been checking whether people they encountered were registered to vote, according to The Guardian. Floyd criticized Washington’s refusal earlier this year to provide unredacted voter rolls, saying it had slowed the inquiry.

Hobbs’ office said it was reviewing the list. “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 said. “The timing of this request—one week before the General Election—is no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results.”

Noncitizens sometimes appear on voter rolls, but few cast ballots, NBC News reported. Newly naturalized citizens can also be incorrectly flagged as noncitizens in voting records.

The Washington request follows a similar Justice Department effort in California, where it sought to separate ballots from as many as 20,000 people it suspected were not citizens. Los Angeles County officials said a review of a sample of 200 records from the federal list found canceled or inactive registrations, people with no voting history and voters who appeared to have been born in the United States, according to The Guardian.

The administration sued California to prevent those ballots from being counted. On Monday, a federal appeals court declined the department’s request for expedited action and returned the case to a lower court. The department also sued Alaska last week over a Senate candidate who shares the Republican incumbent’s first and last name, seeking to block certification unless incumbent Dan Sullivan wins, NBC News reported.