DOJ Asks Washington To Withhold 400 Ballots Over Unproven Voter Fraud Claims

President Donald Trump has spent the entire year trying to depress the vote as much as possible. In its latest effort to sow distrust in the results of the midterms, the Department of Justice has asked the state of Washington to withhold ballots from about 400 people they allege to be non-citizen voters. 

AP reports that the Trump administration sent a letter to Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs asking that the ballots be set aside. Neil Floyd, the acting U.S. attorney in Seattle, said he believed the 405 voters identified so far represented “the tip of the iceberg.”

“Because of limitations the state has placed on our investigation, we’ve only been able to uncover a fraction of the total number,” he said. Hobbs said his office is looking into the names provided. He noted that the DOJ provided the last time the names on the list voted, with one going all the way back to 1994. 

“The timing of this request — one week before the General Election — is no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results,” Hobbs said.

The Justice Department can’t access state records, so it can’t verify whether voters are non-citizens. Which begs the question: what criteria have they used to determine these voters aren’t citizens? 

The problem with building an administration on lies is that it’s hard to believe Floyd and the Justice Department. Trump has spent the last six years alleging widespread voter fraud but has yet to provide any hard proof. Not to mention, the DOJ has increasingly overestimated the number of non-citizen voters on the voter rolls. 

From AP:

The Justice Department told Washington it anticipates sending the state an additional list of people it suspects are not citizens prior to Election Day. It also noted that some of the people it suspects registered without citizenship may have since become naturalized.

Investigations into prior allegations of noncitizen voters have revealed far fewer instances than the Trump administration has claimed. In Nevada, Trump’s administration alleged there were 1,500 potential noncitizen voters on the rolls but subsequent investigation found zero.

In Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, the county recorder, who is a Trump supporter, announced that there were 207 possible noncitizens on the county’s rolls. The Republican County Attorney determined there were actually eight. 

Early voting is underway in nearly every state, but that hasn’t stopped the Trump administration and Justice Department from trying to interfere in the midterms. The DOJ filed a lawsuit in Alaska to prevent the midterm vote from being certified if the Republican candidate doesn’t win. 

The Justice Department’s efforts to remove alleged non-citizens from the voter rolls have run into legal pushback due to faulty evidence. An appeals court shut down the DOJ’s effort to withhold 20,000 ballots in California over unproven allegations of non-citizen voting. 

Trump has become so desperate that he’s offered a $1 million reward for any tips that lead to a voter fraud arrest and conviction. Trump provided no details on where the money would come from, and a White House spokesperson gave reporters no further details on the award. 

Between the efforts in Alaska, California, and now Washington, it’s clear the Trump administration will use the courts to sow doubt about the midterm results. They know they won’t win these cases, but that doesn’t matter. It’s just about creating enough distrust in the results among their base. 

The midterms are shaping up to be disastrous for the GOP, and it’s much easier to lie about voter fraud than accept that making everyday life more dangerous and expensive for the average American isn’t exactly a winning strategy. 

I can’t help but believe these efforts reinforce the widespread belief that the Trump administration isn’t interested in improving voters’ lives; they simply want to maintain power and further enrich themselves. 

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