On Sunday, a federal judge threw out the DOJ’s lawsuit, ruling that their request likely violated Alaskans’ right to a secret ballot. Hours later, the DOJ asked a federal appeals court to overturn the ruling.
Nevada
In July, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed that they had identified over 270,000 noncitizen voters in just four states: California, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. But that bold assertion soon started to unravel.
DHS officials had also claimed that there were 15,903 noncitizens on Nevada’s voter rolls, but then later conceded in a meeting with Nevada officials that they didn’t have evidence. The number of suspected noncitizens on voter rolls then dropped down to 185, but there was no evidence to support that claim either.
“As for the 185 individuals, our records indicate that they were citizens,” Nevada’s Deputy Attorney General Greg Ott wrote in a letter to DHS. “You have provided nothing of substance to suggest otherwise.”
“The Department accessed publicly available data from states’ voter rolls and cross referenced them with known illegal aliens in our systems,” a DHS spokesperson tells WIRED about the situation. “It’s not rocket science; it’s an easy step to secure our elections.”
Ott added in the letter that while Nevada takes allegations of noncitizen voting seriously, “it also has a strong interest in preventing the wrongful disenfranchisement of voters” and is “committed to preventing the chilling effect on the right to vote from taking actions based on unfounded and unverifiable allegations of noncitizen voting.”
Washington
Last week, the DOJ claimed that federal data appeared to show that 400 noncitizens were registered to vote in the state of Washington and demanded that officials isolate those ballots, describing them as “the tip of the iceberg.”
They received another withering letter in return: “The timing of your letter is profoundly disappointing,” wrote Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs. “If you had valid concerns about voter registrations, the time to raise them was a month ago.” Hobbs added that their decision to publicly raise their concerns so close to the election was “not a sign of good faith to ensure a free, fair, and accurate election.”