Election Law: DOJ Requests Washington Hold 400 Ballots for Suspected Noncitizens

The U.S. Department of Justice demanded on Monday that Washington state officials isolate more than 400 ballots from voters the federal government believes are noncitizens. Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd sent the request to the state secretary of state, giving election officials a 24-hour window to check citizenship records for the individuals on the provided list.

Floyd stated in a release that his office identified over 400 registered noncitizens who have voted in multiple elections. He described the current findings as the tip of the iceberg and vowed to continue investigating illegal voting. The Justice Department asserted that these voters committed crimes by casting ballots while registered as noncitizens.

This action follows a similar push in California, where the administration sought to separate thousands of ballots. On the same day the Washington request was made, an appeals court ruled against the Trump administration in the California case. The court found that the Justice Department had not given the lower court a proper opportunity to review its claims before seeking to block ballot counts.

Washington has more than 5 million registered voters. The state refused earlier this year to share unredacted voter rolls with the Justice Department. Floyd said this refusal made his office's work more time-consuming. In an interview with radio host Jason Rantz, Floyd explained that his team cross-referenced voter registration records with lists of permanent legal residents, such as green card holders, to identify discrepancies.

Secretary of State Steve Hobbs' office is currently reviewing the federal list. Spokesperson Helen Smith confirmed the review in an email. Hobbs, however, issued a statement criticizing the timing and process of the request. He noted that the state takes the protection of voter information seriously and will only respond to requests that follow due process.

Hobbs said the state does not want Washingtonians to be harassed, pointing to the recent legal battles in California. He argued that sending the request one week before the General Election was intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results. The General Election is scheduled for next week.

Election records often contain errors regarding citizenship status. Newly naturalized citizens are frequently flagged as noncitizens because there is no single, comprehensive federal list of U.S. citizens. While noncitizens do appear on voter rolls, relatively few of them actually vote because the act is a crime with a paper trail that can lead to deportation or other penalties.

In California, the Justice Department believed 20,000 noncitizens were on the voter rolls. The department gave that state 48 hours to review the list. Los Angeles County election officials filed a legal document arguing that the federal list relied on outdated voting data. They claimed the list included many apparent U.S. citizens whose registrations showed a place of birth in the United States.

The administration has also sought to intervene in other states' elections. Last week, it sued Alaska over the candidacy of a Senate candidate who shares the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan. The suit asks a federal court to block certification of the race unless the incumbent wins re-election. Election experts told NBC News that federal law does not grant the Justice Department authority to intervene in state election certification or ballot counting.