DOJ asks Washington state to set aside 400 ballots from voters it says may be noncitizens

The Trump administration targeted another state Monday by asking Washington state to sequester ballots in next week’s election that it says could be cast by noncitizens.The acting U.S.attorney in Washington, Neil Floyd, asked the Washington secretary of state to review a list of more than 400 registrants the Justice Department believes are noncitizens and sequester any ballots they cast.“We have identified over 400 non-citizens who are registered to vote and have voted in multiple elections,” Floyd said in a news release Monday.

“This is only the tip of the iceberg.We will continue to investigate and identify those who are committing crimes by voting illegally.”The request came the same day the Trump administration suffered a legal setback in its push to separate thousands of ballots in California as it seeks to inject the federal government into tallying and certifying the 2026 election results.NBC News first reported last week that the Justice Department was considering bringing more requests to states with mail elections that send mail ballots to all registered voters.In a letter sent to Washington election officials that was shared with NBC News, the Justice Department gave the state 24 hours to review the list for citizenship records.Washington, which has more than 5 million voters on its voter rolls, refused to share its unredacted voter rolls with the Justice Department this year.

Floyd criticized the state for that, saying Monday that it made his work more time-consuming.In an interview with conservative radio host Jason Rantz that was published Monday, Floyd said his office checked lists of permanent legal residents like green card holders against voter registration records in their search.Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs’ office is reviewing the list, spokesperson Helen Smith said in an email, though Hobbs criticized the request in a statement.“We take our responsibility to protect voter information seriously and will only respond ...