San Diego County rebuffs DOJ request to set aside alleged noncitizen ballots
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (KESQ) - The San Diego County Registrar of Voters has refused a request from the U.S. Department of Justice to set aside the ballots of 1,709 San Diego County voters who federal officials allege are non-citizens.
A letter signed last week by San Diego U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon requested the ballots be left uncounted until the voters' citizenship status could be verified, while hinting at "legal consequences'' if votes ended up cast for non-citizens.
Along with setting aside the ballots, the DOJ called for the Registrar of Voters to send over the voters' personal information such as Social Security numbers and copies of state IDs and driver licenses.
Gordon's letter sought compliance within a 48-hour period that lapsed on Sunday.
In a Tuesday letter obtained by inewsource, San Diego County responded by calling the DOJ's request "a thinly veiled voter purge and request for confidential voter information without a proper purpose."
The county's letter also contained a counter-threat of potential legal action "against DOJ for its unlawful intimidation of election officials and California voters.''
A spokesperson from Gordon's office declined to comment on Wednesday.
The DOJ's letter claimed the 1,709 voters were among 20,000 California voters who are suspected to be non-citizens.
The letter sent to San Diego County's election officials was one of 57 similar letters sent to every California county on Friday, save for Los Angeles County, which had already received such a letter, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The federal government is also carrying out legal action in Los Angeles federal court, where government attorneys have asked a judge to set aside the 20,000 ballots.
U.S. District Judge David Carter, who heard arguments on Tuesday from the Department of Justice and California officials, warned federal prosecutors "that it would be wise ... that any threats to state and county elected employees cease immediately."
Carter indicated he would issue a ruling Wednesday on the government's request.
A federal appeals court panel on Monday refused to consider the administration's emergency appeal of the matter until Carter rules. In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to Carter.
At a rare Sunday session, the appeals panel indicated it saw serious problems with the administration's request for immediate action to separate ballots submitted by voters on a list of about 20,000 suspected non-citizens.
"It seems to me you want us to issue an injunction that is entirely inconsistent with the law the California Legislature has adopted,'' Judge Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, said at the hearing. "How can we do that?"
"Congress and the California Legislature have said non-citizens can't vote. This lawsuit is about, 'We don't like the way you're sorting citizens from non-citizens.' I just don't see (federal law) telling California how to do the sorting,'' he said.
