The US Department of Justice has brought charges against six more people in California in a voter fraud investigation, announced by Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, on Monday. The defendants are lawful permanent residents accused of registering to vote unlawfully and later making false statements on naturalization applications. The cases come on the eve of the midterm elections.
According to complaints filed in federal court, each person faces one charge of making false statements on a naturalization application. Prosecutors allege they registered to vote and later said they had never done so. The complaints say the defendants cast ballots in recent years, but they do not face charges specifically for fraudulent voting. Five of the six had been arrested by Monday, Essayli said.
The defendants are originally from Mexico, Israel, the Philippines, Canada and Iran. Prosecutors say they could face a maximum of five years in prison. The cases are based on initial complaints prepared by Department of Homeland Security agents; the defendants have not been formally indicted. It was not immediately clear whether any had legal representation.
The new prosecutions follow similar charges against 28 people across California last month. They also come as the Justice Department pursues a lawsuit seeking to have state election officials set aside about 20,000 ballots that prosecutors say may be linked to noncitizens who registered unlawfully. The department has argued that the ballots should not be counted until citizenship is confirmed. California election leaders have challenged the reliability of the government’s list and said the demands would be impractical during an election and could prevent eligible citizens from voting. The US Supreme Court rejected the administration’s appeals on Monday after lower-court judges had ruled against its efforts.
Essayli said the six newly charged people appeared on the federal list of roughly 20,000 voters. An immigrants’ rights group that challenged the government’s use of immigration data said in a court filing over the weekend that more than 40% of the people flagged could not be found on California’s voter rolls. The list is a small share of the state’s more than 23 million registered voters. Essayli said prosecutors had relied on third-party databases and acknowledged the list might not be completely accurate, while maintaining that they had a high level of confidence in it.
The Justice Department has also threatened criminal prosecution for election officials who process fraudulent ballots. On Friday, a federal judge blocked the administration from continuing those threats, describing them as coercive and a risk to election workers. Separately, a judge ruled last week that Essayli was unlawfully serving as head of the US attorney’s office because he had not been formally appointed and confirmed by the Senate. The Justice Department is appealing that decision.
Sources: The Guardian World.