Local election officials across California are confused and frustrated after receiving letters from President Donald Trump’s Justice Department demanding that county registrars sequester ballots that the federal government believes were sent to noncitizen voters ahead of the midterm elections.
The letters, which were sent on Friday, ask for sensitive information, including Social Security numbers, on roughly 20,000 voters. It is illegal for noncitizens to register to vote or cast a ballot. The administration has insisted that immigrants voting is a major problem nationwide, when in fact it is quite rare, as even its own investigations have shown.
“All of this is simply meant to raise huge doubts about the integrity of this election,” said John Tuteur, the registrar of voters for Napa County in California’s wine country.
I’m sure you already know this, but some people sue to address a wrong or to correct and injustice. Others sue just to harass and create chaos, and don’t give a shit about the outcome because the more confusion it creates, the better: the suit IS the goal.
This is that second kind of lawsuit. They already know there is negligible non-citizen voting, and when it does happen it is usually the result of confusion and ignorance, not a deliberate intent to vote without the legal right to do so.
This lawsuit has nothing to do with any real problem and everything to do with creating instability in the electoral process itself.
And I would bet it was planned and arranged ahead of time: the timing is part of the effectiveness, if your actual goal is to disrupt voting in a state like California where you already know you are going to lose.
We will likely see more of these frivolous and disruptive DoJ lawsuits not only in the days leading up to the election, but another flurry afterward in every state and race where the orange chancre loses.