The US Department of Justice filed criminal charges on Monday against 28 green card holders in California who are accused of registering to vote and casting ballots illegally, days before a high-stakes federal lawsuit that could reshape how the state counts votes in November's midterms.
According to The Guardian, the defendants are lawful permanent residents with legal status in America, but not the citizenship that confers the right to vote. Prosecutors say they lied under oath on voter registration forms, and 21 of the 28 are alleged to have cast unlawful ballots. Eleven were already in custody when the department announced the charges, and arrests were continuing.
What the charges involve
The Justice Department said the criminal charges include making false statements in naturalization applications and fraudulent voter registration, felonies that can carry up to five years in prison. The department confirmed that federal prosecutors have now filed charges against 112 people across 20 states in recent weeks for alleged registration offences and illegal voting, a sweep that signals Washington intends to treat the integrity of the ballot box as a law enforcement priority rather than a debating society topic.
The department's own announcement leaves little ambiguity about the legal status of those charged: these are foreign nationals who, whatever their paperwork, hold no right to participate in American elections.
California digs in against Washington
The charges arrive amid an extraordinary stand-off between the federal government and America's most populous state. The Justice Department has sued California demanding the courts block the state from tabulating certain ballots in the November midterms, after sending Los Angeles county officials a thumb drive purportedly holding the names of noncitizens unlawfully registered to vote.
Officials were given 48 hours to confirm whether those on the list were citizens and to set aside the ballots of anyone who could not be confirmed. The lawsuit cites a list of more than 20,000 people the federal government