Los Angeles’ top federal prosecutor warned Saturday that noncitizens may be illegally casting ballots in California as dozens of polling locations opened across Los Angeles County. He also cautioned that the state could be attempting to delay the legal process until disputed ballots are counted.
First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli told The California Post that it is “very highly likely” some noncitizens have already voted. The Justice Department is seeking to have California set aside ballots linked to more than 20,000 people it suspects are noncitizens.
“If you look at California’s own papers, they said they’ve already processed over 300,000 ballots just for LA County. So this is going on as we speak,” Essayli said. He warned that additional disputed ballots could be cast while the case continues through the courts.
Essayli and US Attorney General Todd Blanche are spearheading the Justice Department’s appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. They are asking the court to require California to separate the disputed ballots and verify each voter’s citizenship before the ballots are counted.
The dispute focuses on a list of more than 20,000 names that California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan did not review within the timeframe requested by the Justice Department.
As the federal government and California officials continue their courtroom battle, with oral arguments scheduled for Sunday, Essayli said he feared the state’s ongoing challenge to the DOJ order could result in an unknown number of allegedly illegal votes being counted.
“Our biggest fear is they’re just going to try to run out the clock until all the ballots have been processed, in which case there will be nothing we’ll be able to do after the election,” Essayli said, pointing to recent election results decided by razor-thin margins. “Once they count the ballots, there’s no way to go back and undo that.”
Early in-person voting for the Nov. 3 election began Saturday at 123 vote centers across Los Angeles County. Hundreds more locations are scheduled to open next weekend.
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“When you vote in person, it’s even more concerning because that ballot is processed instantly,” Essayli said, referring to the possibility that noncitizens could cast ballots.
Just days earlier, federal agents arrested 28 alleged illegal voters during a sweeping operation targeting people across California. The individuals were identified from the list of more than 20,000 suspected noncitizens.
Authorities charged the suspects with fraudulently registering to vote in US elections, alleging that most had cast illegal ballots. Officials described the arrests as the largest operation of its kind in California history.
“All of them were registered to vote and some of them voted in multiple elections. So this is not a theory,” Essayli said.
The prosecutor questioned why California leaders would oppose the Justice Department’s efforts, saying critics have downplayed the allegations by arguing that any illegal voters would represent only a “small percentage” of the electorate.
“So what percentage is acceptable? I’d like to know from California,” Essayli said.
Before filing its lawsuit, the Justice Department provided Los Angeles County with a password-protected thumb drive containing information about suspected noncitizens who had been sent mail-in ballots, according to letters sent last week to Weber and Logan.
Logan said at the time that he did not regard the thumb drive as a secure device and had not opened any of its files.
“What are they afraid of? Why are they refusing to work with us to figure this out?” Essayli said. “If they’re so confident that their records are so good and noncitizens aren’t voting, then they should have nothing to worry about.”