Federal prosecutors on Friday sent letters to county election offices across California demanding they help sort out which voters on a Justice Department list are citizens, and set aside the mail ballots of anyone whose citizenship cannot be confirmed.
NBC News reported that the letters went to 57 of California's 58 counties. Los Angeles County, the 58th, received a similar letter the week before.
What the letters ask
In the letter NBC News obtained, sent to San Bernardino County's registrar from the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, prosecutors listed 1,133 names they called "likely aliens."
"Within 48 hours, we ask that you commit to working with DOJ and DHS to identify who on the accompanying list is a citizen and who is not," the letter says. For voters whose status cannot be confirmed, it asks the county to have its election official "segregate" their vote-by-mail ballots, not cancel them, until citizenship is determined.
The Justice Department is also asking for information about those voters, including Social Security numbers, identification details and copies of their registrations, The Associated Press reported.
"Any election official who knowingly processes the ballot of a noncitizen is opening themselves to legal jeopardy," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement.
The fight around it
The letters follow a federal lawsuit filed this month against Los Angeles County and the California Secretary of State's office that seeks to block the counting of ballots from about 20,000 people the government says are likely noncitizens. A hearing is set for Tuesday, and the administration has gone to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seeking a ruling, the AP reported.