The Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit Thursday seeking an emergency order to stop California from counting mail ballots from more than 20,000 voters it says are likely noncitizens until their citizenship can be verified.
The action follows letters sent October 13 by Acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan. The letters included a password-protected thumb drive containing the names of individuals federal agencies identified as likely noncitizens who had been mailed, or were scheduled to receive, vote-by-mail ballots for the November 3 election.
McCotter gave the state 48 hours to review the list. Officials were instructed to segregate any returned ballots from those names and hold them pending citizenship verification, and to withhold any remaining unsent ballots until eligibility was confirmed. The deadline was noon Eastern on October 15.
California did not complete the requested steps. On Thursday the Justice Department filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, asking the court to bar tabulation of the ballots in question until citizenship status is determined.
