The Donald Trump administration has issued more than 100 subpoenas demanding election records for tens of thousands of voters in at least 13 states. The campaign is aimed at seeking evidence of illegal voting by people who are not U.S. citizens and is growing just before the midterm elections.
Most of the subpoenas were sent in the past three months to state and local election officials. Among those affected are Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, as well as the states of Texas, Kansas and Georgia. At least 49 of the documents were issued by federal courts, which ties them to criminal investigations and makes them harder to challenge than administrative requests.
The data the federal authorities are requesting includes voting history, addresses and registration documents. The goal is to determine whether people whose citizenship is in question were registered or voted in federal elections. Voting by non-citizens in federal elections is illegal, but multiple studies and Reuters analysis show that the phenomenon is extremely rare.
White House defends actions
The White House presents the investigations as a priority to protect the election. “The Trump administration is sending a clear message that anyone who votes illegally in our elections will be held accountable. "Only Americans should elect America's leaders," spokeswoman Lauren Biss told Reuters.
The federal action, however, has sparked legal wrangling. A federal judge has limited the Department of Homeland Security's operations and interrogations in nine states when they involve or are likely to involve American citizens. In her ruling, she cited a high risk of error because there is no single federal database of the citizenship of all residents of the country.
Controversial lists before the election
The Justice Department has asked Washington to separate the ballots of 405 people it says registered without US citizenship. The department says those people cast about 1,500 ballots in previous elections. Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said the timing of the request, made a week before the election, “is clearly intended to cast unwarranted doubt on the results.”
In California, federal authorities have sought to separate the ballots of up to 20,000 people. An appeals court refused to expedite the process, and the case has been remanded to a lower court. In Los Angeles, a review of a sample of 200 federal roll entries found inactive or canceled registrations, people with no voting history, and voters who appeared to be born in the United States.
Previous reviews have also questioned the accuracy of similar rolls. In Nevada, a claim of 1,500 potential noncitizens has not led to a single case. In Maricopa County, an initial 207 potential noncitizens were found to be eight after further review.
Few Criminal Proceedings
A ProPublica investigation found that after requesting records from about 130 people in March, officials reported that only one case had been referred for criminal prosecution. An internal evaluation by a team leader described the work as “fragmented and disorganized.”
Several cases related to voter data access and ballot separation are due to be decided by the courts. The U.S. midterm elections are scheduled for Nov. 3, and the results in states such as Washington and California could affect control of Congress.
Sources: investing.com, apnews.com, propublica.org