Just days before Tuesday’s midterm elections, the Justice Department has turned up the pressure on California’s election officials, issuing federal grand jury subpoenas as part of a criminal investigation into alleged voting by noncitizens.
The move, reported Thursday by the Associated Press, Reuters, NBC News and ABC News, marks a sharp escalation in the Trump administration’s fight with California over how the state runs its elections.
Testify the day after the election
According to copies of subpoenas obtained by the Associated Press, three employees of the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office were ordered to appear before a grand jury on November 4, the day after Election Day. The subpoenas were sent October 21 and October 24.
The subpoenas seek documents and communications tied to letters federal officials sent to state election officials in July and October alleging that noncitizens are on California’s voter rolls. ABC News reported they also demand records about the agency’s methods for screening out unlawful voting by noncitizens.
The AP reported, citing a person familiar with the matter, that the subpoenas were being issued by all four U.S. attorneys in California. CalMatters reported that at least four California election workers have received subpoenas over the past week, including one delivered Thursday to the Orange County Registrar of Voters seeking unredacted voter records for 60 people.
A judge had just warned prosecutors
The subpoenas landed right after a federal court pushed back on the administration. On Wednesday, a federal judge denied the Justice Department’s request to segregate about 20,000 mail ballots it says came from noncitizens, NBC News reported. On Thursday, the judge appointed a special master to evaluate the administration’s claim that roughly 20,000 noncitizens are on the state’s rolls, according to the AP.
In court earlier in the week, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter told prosecutors, “This court believes it would be wise that any threats to state or county (election) employees cease immediately,” CalMatters reported. The Justice Department has appealed his ruling to the 9th Circuit.
What both sides are saying
The Justice Department insists the election workers are not necessarily in legal jeopardy. “Receiving a subpoena doesn’t mean you are a target,” spokesperson Kiersten Pels said in a statement reported by CalMatters. “In fact, generally, the DOJ doesn’t subpoena targets.”
Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan pushed back hard. “At every step, the US Department of Justice has taken a confrontational, adversarial approach,” he said in a statement reported by Reuters. “Election officials are acting in accordance with state and federal law.”
County officials across California have said spot checks found the federal government’s list of names to be inaccurate, according to CalMatters. Last week, Justice Department officials sent letters to 57 of California’s 58 counties warning election officials to cooperate with federal investigations into illegal voting or face investigations themselves, NBC News reported.
Part of a bigger fight
California isn’t the only front. Reuters reported that the Justice Department also filed an amended lawsuit in Alaska on Thursday seeking to block certification of the results if the Republican incumbent narrowly loses that state’s tight Senate race. Reuters described the moves together as an extraordinary federal intervention in elections that the Constitution leaves to the states to run.
Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. Whatever happens at the polls, some California election workers now know exactly where they will be the next morning: in front of a federal grand jury.