DOJ request to set aside alleged noncitizen ballots rejected by San Diego County
The San Diego County Registrar of Voters has refused a request from the U.S. Department of Justice to set aside the ballots of 1,709 San Diego County voters who federal officials allege are non-citizens.
A letter signed last week by San Diego U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon requested the ballots be left uncounted until the voters’ citizenship status could be verified, while hinting at “legal consequences” if votes ended up cast by non-citizens.
Along with setting aside the ballots, the DOJ called for the Registrar of Voters to send over the voters’ personal information such as Social Security numbers and copies of state IDs and driver licenses.
Gordon’s letter sought compliance within a 48-hour period that lapsed on Sunday.
In a Tuesday letter to Gordon, San Diego County Counsel Damon Brown called the DOJ’s request “a thinly veiled voter purge and request for confidential voter information without a proper purpose.”
The county’s letter also contained a counter-threat of potential legal action “against DOJ for its unlawful intimidation of election officials and California voters.”
A spokesperson from Gordon’s office declined to comment on Wednesday.
Related Stories
The DOJ’s letter claimed the 1,709 voters were among 20,000 California voters who are suspected to be non-citizens.
The letter sent to San Diego County’s election officials was one of 57 similar letters sent to every California county on Friday, save for Los Angeles County, which had already received such a letter, the Los Angeles Times reported.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Los Angeles rejected a Department of Justice bid to set aside the 20,000 ballots.
U.S. District Judge David Carter wrote in a 26-page order that the Trump administration’s request “would wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway, create a chilling effect on election workers and voters alike, and discount the votes of United States citizens.”
Carter’s order continued, “If the Executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger. The Court declines to be a party to such process.”
On Tuesday, after hearing arguments from both sides, Carter warned federal prosecutors “that it would be wise … that any threats to state and county elected employees cease immediately.”
A federal appeals court panel on Monday refused to consider the administration’s emergency appeal of the matter until Carter rules. In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to Carter.
At a rare Sunday session, the appeals panel indicated it saw serious problems with the administration’s request for immediate action to separate ballots submitted by voters on a list of about 20,000 suspected non-citizens.
“It seems to me you want us to issue an injunction that is entirely inconsistent with the law the California Legislature has adopted,” Judge Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, said at the hearing. “How can we do that?”
“Congress and the California Legislature have said non-citizens can’t vote. This lawsuit is about, `We don’t like the way you’re sorting citizens from non-citizens.’ I just don’t see (federal law) telling California how to do the sorting,” he said.
Ver nota original ↗
¿Querés un resumen rápido de esta noticia, hecho por nuestra IA?
