Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has sent letters to several states threatening to criminally prosecute election officials who fail to remove noncitizens from their voter rolls.
Secretaries of state were warned that the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division was authorized to prosecute criminal violations if election officials failed to properly maintain their Statewide Voter Registration Lists, or SVRLs, according to letters obtained by ProPublica.
“Any election officer, including the chief election officer of the state, who knowingly retains noncitizens on the state’s SVRL or facilitates noncitizens in receiving and casting ballots could be subject to criminal liability,” the letters stated.
The letters also warned that any “intentional act that is aimed at diluting the votes of citizens” could be considered conspiracy.
David Becker, a former prosecutor, told ProPublica that the administration’s threat was unprecedented. “It’s a rather transparent attempt at bullying and it’s kind of reflective of the panic that is being felt at the DOJ right now,” he said.
These letters follow the Trump administration’s monthslong campaign to sue states for their voter registration data, in order to target undocumented immigrants. Federal judges across the country have roundly rejected the administration’s efforts. Last month, a federal judge blocked the Department of Homeland Security from continuing to “haphazardly” create a database of millions of Americans it knew was “inaccurate” in order to purge noncitizens off voter rolls. Another federal judge blocked Trump’s executive order attempting to change election rules.
The issue of noncitizen voting remains small to nonexistent. In 2016, noncitizen votes accounted for just 0.0001 percent of the votes cast, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. If Republicans are really looking for election fraud, they might want to check on their own party members—or maybe their party’s leader.