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Sacramento County Voter Registration and Elections office workers place ballots into a box after they were sorted into the their districts on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024.<\/p>\n
Hector Amezcua<\/p>\n
hamezcua@sacbee.com<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors appointed by President Donald Trump have spent the weeks leading up to the election claiming that California\u2019s voter rolls are filled with thousands of noncitizen voters \u2014 claims that have failed to materialize<\/a> in states like Nevada<\/a>, Iowa<\/a> and Michigan<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Friday, federal prosecutors added a new threat: They may seek to prosecute election officials if they \u201cknowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens,\u201d according to a letter sent to California\u2019s top elections officer<\/a> signed by acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Trent McCotter.<\/p>\n McCotter and Bill Essayli, acting first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, reiterated the threat at a news conference Monday, when the DOJ announced charges<\/a> against 28 alleged noncitizens for voting-related crimes.<\/p>\n Elections and legal experts say any attempt to prosecute election officials would face long odds in court. They argue the letter and arrests, sent less than three weeks before Election Day, are designed to intimidate officials and voters.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be ludicrous for the feds to actually charge election officials, and if they did, the charges wouldn\u2019t stick, for the simple reason that the election officials aren\u2019t committing crimes,\u201d said Justin Levitt, a constitutional law professor at Loyola Law School, in an email. \u201cThe good news is that election officials know this is an absurd form of bullying \u2014 and also know how to stand up to bullies.\u201d<\/p>\n A thin legal case<\/p>\n The threat of prosecutions followed DOJ demands that California set aside the ballots of 20,000 voters it determined<\/a> to be noncitizens. Last week, McCotter sent a letter and a password-protected thumb drive with a list of names to Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan, demanding they begin sequestering mail-in ballots sent to people on the DOJ list within 48 hours. When Weber refused \u2014 saying the DOJ had refused to share its methodology and waited until the eleventh hour to act \u2014 the DOJ sued<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Friday letter threatening prosecutions was signed exclusively by Trump\u2019s DOJ political appointees rather than career attorneys. That\u2019s one indication the threat isn\u2019t well supported by the law, according to Samantha Trepel, a former DOJ attorney who now serves as rule of law program director at the nonpartisan States United Democracy Project. In a post on the law news site Just Security<\/a>, Trepel noted that federal prosecutors would have to prove election officials intentionally committed a crime.<\/p>\n \u201cThe election officials here decided to follow longstanding state and federal law rather than ceding to unprecedented demands unsupported by the requested evidence,\u201d Trepel said. \u201cThat decision demonstrates adherence to the law \u2014 not criminal intent.\u201d<\/p>\n Former DOJ attorney David Becker, who now leads the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, flatly rejected the notion that the DOJ would act on its letter.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no path to prosecution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the DOJ did not immediately respond to the request for a comment.<\/p>\n Loading\u2026<\/p>\n Registrars say citizenship checks are not their job<\/p>\n Local election officials rely on county attorneys for legal support. Becker\u2019s Election Official Legal Defense Network also connects election officials with pro bono attorneys if they need added assistance.<\/p>\n Becker said the California election officials he\u2019d spoken to were \u201ccompletely unbowed by this.\u201d<\/p>\n Interim Solano County Registrar John Gardner said he was unaware of McCotter\u2019s threat to prosecute election officials and said it didn\u2019t change anything about how he did his job.<\/p>\n \u201cOur big message is, business as usual,\u201d Gardner said.<\/p>\n One of the 28 people facing federal charges<\/a>, Vacaville resident Giezell Viduya Adawag, is accused of registering and voting in the 2024 elections despite not being a citizen. According to the DOJ\u2019s criminal complaint, Adawag acknowledged she may have voted and said she \u201cdidn\u2019t know any better.\u201d<\/p>\n Gardner said the county had registered Adawag and allowed her to cast a provisional ballot, as it is legally required to do. He said it is up to the Secretary of State\u2019s Office to check a voter\u2019s eligibility to cast ballots, using data from state agencies like the DMV.<\/p>\n State and local officials don\u2019t have a single database to determine a voters\u2019 citizenship status. Registration forms require applicants to attest under penalty of perjury that they are U.S. citizens, effectively putting the onus on the voter rather than election officials.<\/p>\n Gardner said he was not worried about facing prosecution.<\/p>\n \u201cLooking at the data we have on file, I think we acted appropriately,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n El Dorado County spokesperson Carla Hass said the county has no tools to verify a voter\u2019s citizenship.<\/p>\n \u201cOur county elections officials will never knowingly facilitate noncitizen voting because we have no way to verify the citizenship of a voter,\u201d Hass said in an email. \u201cThis is a state-level issue.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Shasta County Registrar Cathy Darling Allen said it was unfortunate that \u201cunderresourced, underpaid, underappreciated\u201d election officials woke up to threats of prosecution last weekend rather than praise.<\/p>\n She said elections offices were often meticulous about getting details right, and recounted how her office used to read ballot titles backwards, word by word, to make sure they were printed correctly.<\/p>\n \u201cElection officials are busy doing their work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n
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