SAN DIEGO — 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 county voters whom federal officials allege are noncitizens.
A letter signed last week by San Diego U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon requested that the ballots remain uncounted until the voters’ citizenship status could be verified, and suggested “legal consequences” if noncitizens cast the votes.
Along with setting aside the ballots, the DOJ called for the registrar to provide the voters’ personal information, such as Social Security numbers and copies of state IDs and driver’s licenses.
Gordon’s letter sought compliance within 48 hours, which expired Sunday.
In a Tuesday letter obtained by inewsource, San Diego County 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 raised the possibility of legal action “against DOJ for its unlawful intimidation of election officials and California voters.”
A spokesperson for Gordon’s office declined to comment Wednesday.
The DOJ’s letter claimed the 1,709 voters were among 20,000 California voters suspected of being noncitizens.
The letter sent to San Diego County election officials was one of 57 similar letters sent Friday to every California county except Los Angeles County, which had already received one, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The federal government is also pursuing legal action in Los Angeles federal court, where government attorneys have asked a judge to set aside the 20,000 ballots.
U.S. District Judge David Carter, who heard arguments Tuesday from the Department of Justice and California officials, warned federal prosecutors “that it would be wise … that any threats to state and county elected employees cease immediately.”
Carter indicated he would issue a ruling Wednesday on the government’s request.
A federal appeals court panel on Monday refused to consider the administration’s emergency appeal 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 noncitizens.
“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.
