The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday sent a letter to all 50 stateds and the District of Columbia threatening criminal prosecution if they allow noncitizens to vote. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
The U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter warning states that if they allow noncitizens to vote, they could face criminal prosecution.
The seven-page letters were sent Tuesday to all 50 states and the District of Columbia Tuesday and were signed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who runs the civil rights division. They list election laws that disallow noncitizens from voting, which have been in place for decades.
“The Department sent these letters to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, asking for voluntary compliance in a timely manner with their obligations under federal law to ensure only citizens vote in federal elections,” NBC News reported a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement.
President Donald Trump has pushed the myth that noncitizen voting is widespread, and it has caused diminished trust in the electoral process among his supporters.
“Any election officer, including the chief election officer of the state, who knowingly retains noncitizens on the state’s” voter list “or facilitates noncitizens in receiving and casting ballots could be subject to criminal liability,” Dhillon said in the letters.
The letters also demanded election officials respond to the department “within five days” explaining in detail how they will comply “with these federal laws both at the state and local level and how the Department can assist in those efforts,” The New York Times reported.
The letters don’t say what will happen if the states don’t respond.
Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican, expressed her frustration.
“Got another love letter this morning from the DOJ sprinkled throughout with threats of criminal prosecution,” Henderson wrote on social media. “I’m sure I’m not the only chief election officer of a state who is being targeted for following state and federal laws by resisting DOJ’s demands for private voter data that have thus far been ruled illegal by at least a dozen courts. This is truly bizarre behavior by the federal agency that is supposed to be protecting civil rights.”
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, posted on X that the department shouldn’t be threatening states.
“It is insulting to insinuate that the good people at our county recorders’ offices across the state are not doing their jobs correctly,” Fontes said. “Arizona election officials have always worked to ensure that only eligible citizens are registered to vote, and we will continue following Arizona law — not directions that come from political rhetoric or intimidation.”
David Becker, a former voting rights lawyer for the Justice Department who now runs the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a nonpartisan group that works to build confidence in elections, said that the letters look like a performative display by the Justice Department.
“This is what panic and desperation looks like,” Becker told The Times. “They’ve had 18 months to find evidence of a crime that was never committed and found nothing. And now they fall back on crude and transparent bullying tactics. They sent these letters to several, perhaps all states, with no specific evidence of a crime.”
He said, “the election officials I’ve spoken with aren’t intimidated, and are seeing these empty threats for what they are.”
This week in Washington
News anchors are seen outside the Supreme Court of the United States as the court releases their final opinions before summer recess on Tuesday. The court upheld birthright citizenship and also state laws banning transgender women and girls from playing on school athletic teams. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
