WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Less than two weeks before \u2060US \u2060midterm elections, the Department of \u2060Justice has warned election officials across California that they could be \u200btargets of federal “scrutiny” if they refuse to help identify suspected noncitizens on voter rolls and set aside \u200ctheir mail ballots pending citizenship \u200cchecks, the New York Times reported.<\/p>\n
According to the letters sent on Friday to all 58 \u2060California counties, \u2060local officials were given 48 hours to help determine the citizenship \u200bstatus of individuals on federal government lists, the Times wrote.<\/p>\n
The letters warned counties they could face “significant federal scrutiny” if they failed to comply.<\/p>\n
According to the Times, the letters included lists of people whom the \u200bJustice Department believes to be illegally registered to vote and described them as a \u2060subset \u2060of the 20,000 people throughout \u2060California it \u200bidentified last week as possible\u00a0noncitizens who may have received ballots.<\/p>\n
For those whose “citizenship status cannot be \u200bconfirmed, we request that \u2060you immediately instruct the appropriate elections official to segregate \u2014 not cancel \u2014 those individuals’ vote-by-mail ballots until their citizenship status can be determined,” it quoted the letter as saying.<\/p>\n
The Justice Department and the California attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
In the \u2060run-up to next month’s\u00a0midterm elections, the Justice Department has ramped up prosecutions of people \u2060accused of illegally voting while not holding US citizenship.<\/p>\n
The White House has also pushed federal agencies to accelerate their review of at least 47 state voter rolls obtained by the Department of Homeland Security, according to an internal email seen by Reuters.<\/p>\n
On October 16, the DOJ warned Los Angeles County and California election officials they could be liable as\u00a0abettors of a federal crime if they count mail ballots returned by more than 20,000 people the Trump administration says are probably \u2060noncitizens.<\/p>\n
California officials have rejected the moves, saying the federal government has not provided sufficient information about how it identified the alleged noncitizens.\u00a0<\/p>\n
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber has accused the administration of attempting to unlawfully access protected voter data and purge \u200bvoter rolls, saying such efforts undermine confidence in elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; \u200bEditing by Sergio Non and Nia Williams)<\/p>\n
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