The Justice Department is warning local election officials in California to work with the government to identify non-citizens on registered voter lists or risk legal action, according to a letter obtained by NBC News.
The department sent letters to 57 of California’s 58 counties on Friday, a move that marks a step by the Trump administration to prevent the state from counting votes from voters the federal government identifies as possible non-citizens.
Los Angeles County received a similar letter last week.
NBC News obtained a letter from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles to Joi Finwall, the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters. In it, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bilal Essayli noted that his office is providing a list of 1,133 “possible aliens.”
“Within 48 hours, we ask that you commit to working with the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to determine who is and is not a citizen on the attached list,” Essaly wrote. “I am writing this letter to make clear the legal implications of continuing to send mail-in ballots to people on the list or tabulate the votes they cast until their citizenship has been verified.”
For those whose citizenship status cannot be confirmed, Essally asked the county to “immediately direct the appropriate elections officials to quarantine (and not cancel) these individuals’ mail-in ballots until their citizenship status can be determined.”
“The legal consequences of assisting or ignoring a federal crime are significant. It is a federal crime for a foreign national to vote in a federal election — and knowingly assisting such conduct is equally unlawful,” Essaly wrote in the letter.
“The letters speak for themselves,” Essaly said in a statement to NBC News. “Any election official who knowingly handles the ballots of non-citizens faces legal jeopardy.”
The New York Times first reported the letters.
“Trump’s Justice Department has provided no evidence to back up their claims of massive voter fraud,” Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said in a statement Friday night. “They acknowledge that the data they point to is inaccurate and unreliable. No matter how many lawsuits they file or how many election officials they threaten, they have no authority to intervene.”
The Trump administration has made reaching out to non-citizen voters a priority ahead of the midterm elections, and has singled out heavily Democratic California. The administration has filed a lawsuit to prevent the state from counting more than 20,000 mail-in ballots from voters it suspects are not U.S. citizens. On Thursday, it asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to impose the restrictions before a lower court rules on the case.