DoJ charges 28 green card holders in California over alleged voter fraud

Key points

• The US Department of Justice charged 28 green card holders in California with fraudulently registering to vote and casting illegal ballots.
• A justice department spokesperson said 21 of the 28 defendants had cast unlawful ballots, and 11 were in custody.
• California's secretary of state, Shirley Weber, called the justice department's demands "outrageous" and said they would violate federal law.

The US Department of Justice has filed criminal charges against 28 green card holders in California accused of fraudulently registering to vote and casting illegal ballots. The justice department announced the charges on Monday, saying the defendants are lawful permanent residents who are not citizens authorized to vote.

The charges include making false statements in a naturalization application and fraudulently signing up to vote, felonies that could carry five years in prison. A justice department spokesperson said 21 of the 28 defendants had cast unlawful ballots, and 11 had been taken into custody while arrests continued.

State officials push back

California's secretary of state, Shirley Weber, condemned the justice department's demands as "outrageous", saying federal officials had made "vague and unsubstantiated allegations" about voter fraud in the state. She noted that the Department of Homeland Security first claimed in July that more than 190,000 registered voters "may be" noncitizens, but had since revised that number down to 20,000.

Janice Hahn, a member of the Los Angeles county board of supervisors, said the arrests were "voter intimidation and a blatant attempt to undermine trust in our midterm elections". The justice department's lawsuit, filed days before the arrests, asked courts to block California from tabulating certain ballots in the November midterms.

This is voter intimidation and a blatant attempt to undermine trust in our midterm elections

— Janice Hahn

Doubts over the list

Trent McCotter, the acting US deputy attorney general, acknowledged the government's list of alleged noncitizen voters might not be accurate. "There may be some names on there who, it turns out, ultimately are citizens," he said.

Court papers made public on Monday suggest at least some of those charged were confused about their eligibility. One man, Erick Ronaldo Soto, a legal permanent resident since 1976, told investigators he cast a blank ballot after poll workers told him it was acceptable. The justice department said it had filed charges against 112 people across 20 states in recent weeks.