The Justice Department announced Monday that it has charged 28 people in California with unlawful voting and other election-related offenses, ABC News reports.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said the charges involve some combination of unlawful voting by a noncitizen, falsely claiming U.S. citizenship to vote or register, and depriving Californians of a fair election process. The department says some of those charged are green card holders.
All 28 were on a list of about 20,000 names the DOJ sent California last week, people it suspects are not citizens who were mailed ballots for next month’s midterms.
The department sued the state Thursday. Los Angeles County declined to open the thumb drive holding the list, calling it an insecure medium. McCotter did not rule out charging election workers, citing aiding and abetting law.
U.S. First Assistant Attorney Bill Essayli said 113 people in 20 states have been charged in the last seven weeks.
These are charges, not convictions. California officials call the DOJ’s demands legally baseless, and experts cited by ABC say noncitizen voting is extraordinarily rare.
When the DOJ sent Nevada a similar list of 185 names, state officials found every person on it was a lawful U.S. citizen.
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