DOJ asks Washington to set aside ballots from 400 alleged noncitizens

Federal prosecutors said they sent a letter to the Washington secretary of state with a list of 400 people they claimed are not U.S. citizens.

Washington — Federal prosecutors in Washington state asked its top election official Monday to set aside ballots from more than 400 people who they believe are not U.S. citizens, expanding the Justice Department's efforts to call into question the accuracy of states' voter rolls just days before the midterm elections.Neil Floyd, the acting U.S. attorney in Seattle, and Pete Serrano, the top federal prosecutor in eastern Washington, said they believe that many of the more than 400 registered voters are green-card holders, who have legal immigration status but are not U.S. citizens and cannot vote in federal elections.Still, the prosecutors said that the suspected noncitizens have voted in multiple elections, and Floyd estimated that more than 1,500 ballots have been illegally cast."This is not the full number of noncitizens who have been voting in Washington," Floyd said.

"This is only the tip of the iceberg."Floyd and Serrano said they provided Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs with a list of the 405 people who the Justice Department claims are illegally registered to vote and asked for ballots they may cast to be segregated until their citizenship status is confirmed.In a letter to Hobbs dated Monday, they said some of the people identified by the Department of Homeland Security as noncitizens voted in elections as recently as the August primaries. Some