How the Administration's Noncitizen Voter Lists Could Shadow Tuesday's Midterms
The Justice Department has told five states — California, Washington, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Nevada — that it found noncitizens on their rolls, and is suing California over 20,000 voters. Two courts have said no so far. Reuters explains how the lists could still be used to contest close results on Tuesday.
Two days before the midterm elections, a legal fight over voter lists is running underneath the campaign itself. The Trump administration has acknowledged sending letters to election officials in five states — California, Washington, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Nevada — as of October 30, saying it identified noncitizens on their voter rolls, according to a Justice Department document seen by Reuters and reported in the wire service's Sunday explainer.
The sharpest fight is in California. In an October 13 letter, the Justice Department demanded the state not count ballots from about 20,000 registered voters who federal agencies 'reasonably believe are likely noncitizens,' and the department is now suing to block the counting of any ballots from that list. The courts have not gone along: a federal judge rejected the bid on October 28, saying it would 'wreak havoc' on the November 3 elections and questioning the list's reliability, and a federal appeals court upheld that ruling on October 30, citing a 'material risk' of disenfranchising eligible voters. Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said on Fox News on Saturday that the department would 'probably' appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The underlying numbers are contested in a way voters should understand before Tuesday. Noncitizen voting is illegal and can bring jail time, fines and deportation. But 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 — many appearing to stem from confusion or administrative errors rather than intentional fraud. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed in a Fox News interview on Saturday, without evidence, that his agency had found 300,000 noncitizens on the voter rolls.
Why it matters for New York's metro: New Jersey is one of the five states that received a letter, though the Justice Department has not said how many people on its lists have actually submitted ballots, in any state. Legal experts told Reuters the lists could provide a basis for challenging close election results even if the administration struggles to prevail in court — which means the lists' biggest effect may come after the counting, in races close enough to contest. New York's own polls run Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., under state administration, as the Constitution provides.
