Justice Department asks court to set aside ballots in California voter-roll dispute

The US Justice Department asked a court on October 19 to require California to set aside mail ballots from people on a federal list of suspected noncitizens and verify their citizenship before counting their votes in the November 3 midterm elections. The request extends a dispute over the accuracy of the state's voter rolls as prosecutors announce voting-related charges against 28 lawful permanent residents.

The department made the request in its lawsuit over California's handling of a list of more than 20,000 people whom federal officials believe may be noncitizens and who were sent mail ballots. A hearing on the request had not been set, Bloomberg reported in The Straits Times. The lawsuit was covered in an earlier NewsJaws report on the Justice Department's case against California.

Why California disputes the federal voter list

The requested order would affect whether ballots from people on that list are counted before their citizenship is checked. It was not immediately clear whether the court would grant the request. Weber has called the department's demands outrageous and described its voter-fraud allegations as vague and unsubstantiated, The Guardian reported.

Charges and arrests amid the voting dispute

On October 19, prosecutors announced charges against 28 lawful permanent residents in California over alleged offenses including fraudulent voter registration and casting unlawful ballots. Eleven had been taken into custody. A Justice Department spokesperson said 21 of the 28 had cast unlawful ballots, according to The Guardian. The defendants may live legally in the United States but are not citizens eligible to vote in federal elections; the charges remain allegations.

Federal prosecutors described the operation as an effort to combat election fraud. The Justice Department also said 112 people across 20 states had recently faced federal charges for alleged registration offenses and illegal voting, The Guardian reported. Those charges do not establish that the separate list of California voters is accurate.

A spokesperson for California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the 28 people charged represented approximately 0.0001% of the state's more than 23 million registered voters and argued that the allegations, even if true, did not show widespread voter fraud, Bloomberg reported. Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn called the arrests voter intimidation and said they undermined trust in the midterm elections, according to the same report.