Southern California election officials received subpoenas from the U.S. Department of Justice, requesting information about possible registered voters and correspondence with federal officials, in what is the latest escalation in the federal government’s fight with California over elections.
Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page said he received a subpoena on Thursday, Oct. 29, seeking the unredacted voter registration information for 60 possible registrants. The subpoena did not indicate why the names were being investigated.
The information is being subpoenaed “in connection with an official criminal investigation being conducted by the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations,” a copy of the letter provided to the Southern California News Group said.
Page said his office plans to provide responsive
Page said his office plans to “provide responsive documents for the subpoena” just as it did with the three sent in September that sought voter registration information for 20 people. He said three of the names on Thursday’s subpoenas appeared in September’s as well.
The subpoena come a day after a federal judge in Los Angeles rejected the Trump administration’s request for a temporary restraining order that would have forced the state’s election officials to set aside ballots of some 20,000 alleged noncitizen voters.
Approving the request “would wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway, create a chilling effect on election workers and voters alike, and discount the votes of United States citizens,” U.S. District Judge David O. Carter wrote in a 26-page order.
The Trump administration has appealed the ruling.
The Los Angeles County registrar’s office confirmed
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County registrar’s office confirmed that three of its employees received subpoenas between Oct. 21 and 24 for records related to letters between California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and between her and Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter.
This includes all communications regarding “internal discussions pertaining to the subject matter” and any communications “involving (their) agency’s response to the requests” outlined in the documents.
The subpoenas also seek information relating to the office’s “methods for screening for unlawful voting by aliens” and anything about efforts to prevent noncitizen votes from being counted.
The subpoenas were addressed to the executive liaison,
The subpoenas were addressed to the executive liaison, assistant registrar-recorder/county clerk and records custodian for the county registrar’s office. They were ordered to report in person to the federal courthouse in Santa Ana on Nov. 4, the morning after Election Day.
The issuance of a subpoena does not necessarily mean the person who receives it is the target of a criminal investigation.
“Judge Carter’s admonishment about threats directed at election officials on Tuesday was well placed and appreciated. At every step, the U.S. Department of Justice has taken a confrontational, adversarial approach,” L.A. County Registrar Dean Logan said in a statement Thursday.
Election officials are acting in accordance with state
“Election officials are acting in accordance with state and federal law,” Logan said. “Clear court rulings at both the U.S. District Court level and the Court of Appeals have confirmed that. Threats and intimidation have no place in elections. We will take whatever steps necessary to ensure the safety of our employees and to remain focused on serving the voters of Los Angeles County so they can exercise their voting franchise.”
Justin Levitt, a constitutional law expert who teaches at Loyola Law School, said the Justice Department has no reason to send these subpoenas now, since federal prosecutors have “plenty of time after the election” to gather information for any criminal investigation. But still, the recent subpoenas raise an important question, he said: Why now?
“I think that all of this shows that the DOJ is far more interested in publicity than it is in law enforcement at this point,” Levitt, who worked in the Biden administration on voting rights issues, said.
Neither Riverside County nor San Bernardino County registrars
Neither Riverside County nor San Bernardino County registrars had received a similar subpoena as of Thursday afternoon, spokespeople for those offices said.
Matt Lesenyie, an expert in political psychology who teaches at Cal State Long Beach, questioned why only a select number of counties are receiving these subpoenas from the federal government.
“If there’s a problem with California, I’d like to see them dig into all counties, not a selective group of counties,” Lesenyie said. “I’ll go on this walk and say, what if this was a legitimate claim — which is doing a lot of work there. The timing looks beyond suspect, and it looks, based on the general action of this administration, that it’s very concerned it’s going to lose big across the board.”
Assuming we don’t need to investigate all
“Assuming we don’t need to investigate all the states, and I think that’s a big assumption, then I’d like to see it not look so partisan,” Lesenyie said. “The fact that it’s selective is very problematic, because it suggests that the state law isn’t enough and that somehow, certain counties are a problem. I just find that very hard to believe.”
In recent days, the Justice Department has asked local county election officials for “help” verifying the citizenship status of potential voters.
That included a request concerning 1,754 people in Orange County, and Page said Wednesday evening that his office could not comply, citing state and federal law. Riverside County was asked to check on 1,355 names, and San Bernardino County 1,133.
Noncitizen voting has been a central focus
Noncitizen voting has been a central focus of President Donald Trump’s political messaging for years, although available data indicates it is exceedingly rare.
While campaigning in South Carolina earlier Thursday, Trump blasted California and the federal judge’s ruling.
“California is very corrupt,” Trump said during a press gaggle, alleging that the election would be “stolen” from Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton for Democratic contender Xavier Becerra.
The elections are extremely corrupt, Trump said
“The elections are extremely corrupt,” Trump said. “The judge should not have done that, but we’ll appeal that, of course.”
He said there are “millions, in my opinion” of “bad votes” in California, calling it a “corrupt state.”
Every registered voter in California was mailed a ballot at the beginning of October, and voting has been ongoing ever since. Election Day is Tuesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
