Trump's Noncitizen Voter Lists Could Be Used to Contest Close Midterm Results, Reuters Explains
The administration has sent letters to five states saying it identified noncitizens on their rolls and is suing California over about 20,000 voters — but courts have rejected the effort so far, and Reuters found just 129 federal illegal-voting charges since 1996.
As Americans head to the polls on Tuesday for the midterm elections, lists the Trump administration has compiled of possible noncitizen voters could be used to contest the validity of the results, Reuters reported on Nov. 1. The administration has acknowledged sending letters to election officials in five states — California, Washington, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Nevada — as of Oct. 30, saying it identified noncitizens on their voter rolls, according to a Justice Department document seen by Reuters. Florida is not among the five states named in that reporting.
In an Oct. 13 letter, the Justice Department demanded California not count ballots from about 20,000 registered voters who federal agencies believe are likely noncitizens without first verifying their citizenship, warning that election workers who processed them could face prosecution, Reuters reported. The Justice Department is now suing California to block the state from counting any ballots from that list of 20,000 voters. Noncitizen voting is illegal and can lead to jail time, fines and deportation, and the White House says it is a significant problem requiring aggressive enforcement. Available evidence indicates it is exceedingly rare, Reuters reported: a Reuters investigation in July found just 129 cases in which noncitizens were federally charged with voting illegally since Congress created the federal 'voting by aliens' statute in 1996, and many appeared to stem from confusion or administrative errors rather than intentional fraud. 'Close elections are not rare, and every illegal ballot cancels out the vote of an American citizen,' a Justice Department spokesperson, Kiersten Pels, said in a statement reported by Reuters.
The lists could provide a basis for challenging close election results even if the administration struggles to prevail in court, Reuters reported. Under most state laws, only candidates or voters can challenge election results, but a losing candidate could argue that suspected noncitizen votes made it impossible to determine the rightful winner, three legal experts told Reuters — though such challenges would face significant legal hurdles, partly because reviews of the administration's lists have found that many people on them are U.S. citizens. On Oct. 28, a federal judge in California rejected the Justice Department's bid to block ballots from the 20,000 voters, saying the move would 'wreak havoc' on the Nov. 3 elections and questioning the reliability of the list, and a federal appeals court upheld the ruling on Oct. 30, citing a material risk of disenfranchising eligible voters, Reuters reported. The Department of Homeland Security obtained at least partial voter-roll data from at least 47 states, according to a recent internal DHS email reviewed by Reuters.
