Washington asked to hold 400 ballots in midterm election

Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd requested that Washington state officials set aside 400 ballots from the upcoming general election.

The request targets voters the Justice Department believes may be noncitizens. Floyd sent a letter to the secretary of state on Monday, giving the state 24 hours to review the list for citizenship records. He stated in a news release that over 400 noncitizens are registered to vote and have participated in multiple elections. Floyd described this number as the tip of the iceberg and said his office would continue investigating.

This action follows a pattern of federal involvement in state election processes this year. Last week, NBC News reported that the Justice Department was considering similar requests for states with mail-in voting systems. The department also recently sought to separate thousands of ballots in California. On Monday, an appeals court ruled against the Trump administration in that California case, finding that the Justice Department had not given a lower court sufficient time to review the claims.

Washington state has more than 5 million voters on its rolls. The state declined to share unredacted voter rolls with the federal government earlier this year. Floyd criticized this decision, noting it made his work more time-consuming. He told conservative radio host Jason Rantz that his office compared lists of permanent legal residents, such as green card holders, against voter registration records to find discrepancies.

Secretary of State Steve Hobbs is currently reviewing the list provided by the federal government. Spokesperson Helen Smith confirmed the review in an email. Hobbs issued a statement criticizing the timing of the request, which comes one week before the general election. He said the state takes responsibility for protecting voter information seriously and will only respond to requests that follow due process. Hobbs argued that the timing is intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results.

Noncitizens do appear on voter rolls occasionally, though few actually cast ballots because voting is a crime with a paper trail. Penalties can include deportation. Newly naturalized citizens are frequently flagged in voting records because there is no single comprehensive list of U.S. citizens. In California, election officials in Los Angeles County filed a legal document stating that the Justice Department's list appeared to come from old voting data and included many apparent U.S. citizens with U.S. places of birth.

The administration has taken other legal steps regarding election certification. Last week, it sued Alaska over a Senate race involving a candidate with the same name as the incumbent, Dan Sullivan. The suit asks a court to block certification of that race unless the Republican senator wins re-election. Election experts noted that federal law does not grant the Justice Department authority to intervene in election certification or ballot counting.