California election officials frustrated, rattled by DOJ demand to sequester 'noncitizen' ballots

Los Angeles (AP) — Local election officials across California are confused and frustrated after receiving letters from President Donald Trump's Justice Department demanding that county registrars sequester ballots that the federal government believes were sent to noncitizen voters ahead of… It is illegal for noncitizens to register to vote or cast a ballot. The administration has insisted that immigrants voting is a major problem nationwide, when in fact it is quite rare, as even its own investigations have shown.“All of this is simply meant to raise huge doubts about the integrity of this election,” said John Tuteur, the registrar of voters for Napa County in California’s wine country.Tuteur and other election officials who spoke to The Associated Press on Saturday said they have already started to count ballots that have trickled in from the state's 23 million registered voters.“We’re not changing anything we’re doing.

We’re proceeding with the election,” he said.The federal government set a 48-hour deadline to provide information, and it warned that legal action could be taken against any official who knowingly counted a noncitizen's vote.However, the California attorney general's office said the letters contained errors. For example, Mendocino County officials received a list of people who were not residents there, according to the state's court filing.The letters are the latest escalation in a legal battle between Democratic-dominated California and Trump's Department of Justice ahead of the midterms. The federal government sued on Oct.

15, roughly three weeks before elections, asking a judge to bar the state from counting mail-in ballots from people the federal government has identified as likely noncitizens. A panel of 9th Circuit appeals court judges will hear arguments on Sunday about whether California can be compelled to comply with the federal government’s demands.Some clerks say they will proceed with counting ballotsTuteur said that two uniformed Department of Homeland Security officers delivered a letter to his office late on Friday afternoon. The letter included the names of 42 people who the federal government accused of being noncitizens illegally registered to vote.