Justice Dept. sent subpoenas to L.A. election officials. What that means and what happens next
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Set us as preferred The war over California’s elections intensified late this week after three Los Angeles County officials were slapped with criminal grand jury subpoenas related to their handling of thousands of state ballots, which the Justice Department has demanded be set aside amid claims they could be cast by noncitizens.Labor unions and voting rights groups hit back, sending a fresh wave of action into the tempest of federal lawsuits already swirling around the ballot clawback order.The storm surged back through the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday morning and appeared on a path to the U.S.
Supreme Court, which would decide whether to hear the case.Voting by noncitizens is exceedingly rare, law enforcement experts and elections officials say.Yet the Trump administration has doggedly pursued claims to the contrary.
Under the subpoenas, L.A.County officials are being ordered to hand over troves of internal documents — emails, text messages and other material — related to their handling of the administration’s demand to sequester 20,000 contested ballots.
Politics Federal grand jury subpoenas have demanded that county election officials turn over internal communications and testify, raising concerns that investigations could intimidate workers.The subpoenas also order them to produce any evidence they may have collected “which tends to indicate an alien has voted.” Prosecutors charge that widespread noncitizen voting disenfranchises Americans by diluting their lawful votes.Meanwhile, Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters Dean Logan and hundreds of workers who report to him are heading into Tuesday’s election under the cloud of criminal investigation, with department bureaucrats ordered to appear in federal court in Santa Ana on Wednesday morning.“Threats and intimidation have no place in ele...