The Trump administration asked Washington state Monday to set aside more than 400 ballots from individuals it claims may not be eligible to vote, following a similar request in California.
“We have identified over 400 non-citizens who are registered to vote and have voted in multiple elections,” acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington Neil Floyd said in a news release, describing it as the “tip of the iceberg.”
The statement said that many of the people on the list are lawful permanent residents or green-card holders, but they do not have the right to vote in U.S. elections.
It marks the latest move by President Donald Trump’s administration to allege voter fraud ahead of the midterm elections next week. Noncitizens are not allowed to vote in federal elections, and they rarely attempt to do so, according to past court cases and independent reviews.
In a letter sent to Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, the Justice Department said that the individuals it had identified had cast more than 1,500 votes, the Associated Press reported. It asked the state officials to set their ballots aside until officials can confirm they are eligible.
Hobbs’s office said Monday it was reviewing the request but defended the security of elections in the state and noted that one of the records mentioned in the Justice Department letter is from 1994.
“We take our responsibility to protect voter information seriously and will only respond to requests that follow due process,” Hobbs said in a statement. “We saw what happened in California and don’t want Washingtonians to be harassed.”
“The timing of this request — one week before the General Election — is no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results,” he continued.
The Justice Department did not immediately reply to an overnight request for comment.
The request comes after the Justice Department sued top election officials in California and Los Angeles County and asked a federal judge to prevent the counting of ballots from more than 20,000 voters unless it can be determined they are citizens. An appeals court on Monday declined to order election officials to set the votes aside — though the ruling is not final — dealing a blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to control how midterm results are counted.
In Alaska, the Trump administration has filed a lawsuit to preemptively block certification of the results of the state’s tight Senate race if the Republican incumbent narrowly loses, arguing that the presence of a candidate with a similar name on the ballots could affect results.
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