The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday stepped up its intervention in California’s ongoing election, sending letters to county election offices across the state asking them to separate ballots from voters the Trump administration considers to be noncitizens.
The letters gave officials 48 hours to take action and threatened criminal penalties if they refused. The Justice Department last week sent similar letters to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar’s Office Director Dean Logan, calling for about 20,000 ballots across the state to be put on hold and not counted until state and local officials can prove the voters are citizens.
When Weber and Logan balked, the Justice Department immediately filed suit against them and the state, a case now pending in federal court. California officials claim the Justice Department’s efforts are illegal.
The new letters, first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, follow threats from Justice Department officials and President Trump warning local election officials in California that they could face criminal prosecution for “aiding and abetting a federal crime” if they count ballots that the government flagged as “possibly non-citizens.”
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles said the letters were received in 57 of California’s 58 counties, except for Los Angeles, which has been notified.
“The letters speak for themselves. Any election official who knowingly handles the ballots of non-citizens faces legal jeopardy,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney. Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, said in a statement.
“California does not verify citizenship. We do the work for them. We get the list of registered voters and tell them who we consider to be non-citizens on their rolls,” Essally wrote in the X on Friday night.
“It is a federal crime to knowingly handle the ballots of non-citizens,” Essally wrote, adding that authorities “will hold election officials accountable. No one is above the law.”
The Justice Department did not respond to inquiries from The Times. California Attorney. Gen. Rob Bonta’s office declined to comment.
Santa Cruz County Clerk Tricia Webber, president of the California Association. Clerks and elections officials said, “As far as I know, most if not all counties are doing what I’m doing: sitting down with our counselors and talking everything through,” Weber said.
Weber said two people with Justice Department credentials showed up at her office on Friday and handed her a manila envelope containing a letter giving her 48 hours to determine the citizenship status of 81 people in the county.
“I can’t tell you anything other than that I’m doing my research and doing my due diligence,” she said. “This is not normal protocol for us.”
Kristin Connelly, director of the Contra Costa County Recorder’s Office, said she was among those who received the letter. She said she had not responded as of late Friday but was in contact with her county counsel and “colleagues across the state who received similar letters today.”
“The nonpartisan Contra Costa County Elections Department administers elections in accordance with all state and federal election laws, as well as the U.S. Constitution and the California Constitution. Our work is there for all to see,” Connally said. “This threat is not helpful, it is intended to intimidate.”
The letter she received was from an American lawyer. Craig Missakian fraught with threats of criminal penalties for “actually notifying” the county of the ballots of individuals who may not be U.S. citizens.
Misakian, the top federal prosecutor in the Northern District of California, wrote that he was providing Connally with a “subset of 407 possible aliens” among the 20,000 voters across the state, and asked Connally to commit to working with Justice Department and Homeland Security officials within 48 hours to determine who among the 407 “is a citizen and who is not.”
“This means sending us non-public information related to each suspected alien registration, which includes all of the following information you have: a Social Security number, a copy of or the information shown on a state identification card or driver’s license, a copy of the voter registration application supporting the registration, and a copy or duplicate of the document the registrant presented when registering to vote or obtaining a driver’s license (if registering on a motor voter list),” Misakian wrote.
He also wrote that he was writing “to clarify the legal implications of continuing to send mail-in ballots to people on the list or tabulate the votes they cast before their citizenship has been verified.”
The Justice Department has previously sued California over its voter records. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying the demands posed a threat to democracy. The Justice Department has lost similar cases requiring voter registration in dozens of other states.
“Donald Trump and Todd Branch are trying to interfere in California’s elections,” California Sen. Alex Padilla said in a statement Friday.
“No matter how many lawsuits they file or how many election officials they threaten, they don’t have the power to intervene,” added Padilla, the ranking Democrat on the U.S. Senate Rules and Regulation Committee, which oversees federal elections.
Padilla told local election officials, “We support you.”
“The Trump administration is terrified and desperate,” he said. “Their attempt to take over our election will fail.”
The Justice Department has received some subpoenas from state and county officials to obtain specific voter records.
The letters became the subject of discussion among members of the California Association. Clerks and election officials are meeting Friday as officials work out how to respond.
Logan, Los Angeles County’s top elections official, sent an email to other association members saying he had seen copies of the letter to some counties, which he denounced as distorting facts and threatening election officials with an “intimidating gesture” “twelve days before the election.”
Logan called the 48-hour response period “unenforceable” and noted that the Justice Department is “requiring individual-level data from designated counties, similar to what was previously obtained only through subpoenas.”
Logan’s office also said an initial review of some of the 20,000 voters initially flagged by the Justice Department found that many were born in the United States, many were not actually registered and many had never voted.