Washington state challenges 400-person DOJ voter list before midterms

Washington state officials disputed a federal demand to hold ballots for 400 registered voters alleged to be noncitizens, arguing the list is flawed and the deadline is too tight for the Nov. 3 election.

Steve Hobbs, the state secretary of state, sent a letter to the Justice Department on Wednesday. He stated that the list provided by federal prosecutors is not reliable. Hobbs noted that many individuals on the roster are verified U.S. citizens.

The dispute began when prosecutors Neil Floyd and Pete Serrano sent a letter to Hobbs on Monday. They demanded the state review the 400 names and direct election workers to set aside any ballots from those individuals until their citizenship is verified. The prosecutors gave the state a 48-hour deadline to implement this process, threatening emergency legal relief if the state failed to comply.

Hobbs replied that a preliminary review found significant errors. He wrote that many persons on the list are United States citizens. He also identified a significant number of records for people who were not currently registered to vote or had inactive registrations.

The secretary of state warned that it would likely be unlawful for election workers to ignore ballots from people on the list without individualized proof of ineligibility. Hobbs stated that declining to process a registered voter's ballot without such proof would be both irresponsible and illegal.

Hobbs criticized the method used to create the list. He said the Justice Department did not explain how the data was collected or what sources were used. The list was delivered as a PDF document containing a printed spreadsheet. Hobbs pointed out that the spreadsheet lacked publicly available fields such as voter ID numbers or addresses, which are needed to verify records.

The document also contained duplicate entries. Hobbs described the list as created in a rushed manner due to these inconsistencies. He argued that the current list may only represent the tip of the iceberg of individuals who could be wrongfully disenfranchised by the federal request.

This is the second recent federal challenge to state voter rolls before the midterms. Earlier in October, Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter demanded that California separate ballots from 20,000 people the administration believes are noncitizens.

In California, a federal judge raised concerns about the government's process. Judge David Carter noted that the procedure was rife with uncertainty and errors. He stated that individuals who met California's registration requirements should not lose their voting rights based on unfounded allegations.

Voting in Washington has been underway since mid-October. More than 1.3 million mail ballots had been returned as of Wednesday. The state has not filed a lawsuit in response to the federal letter as of Thursday afternoon.