Los Angeles prosecutor warns non-citizens could vote as California’s election fight heads to court

Los Angeles’ top federal prosecutor fears noncitizens could vote illegally in California as dozens of polling places opened Saturday in Los Angeles County, warning the state could try to run out of time before disputed votes are counted.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli told the California Post that it’s “very likely” that non-citizens have already voted, as the Justice Department fights to get California to void ballots linked to more than 20,000 suspected non-citizens.

“If you look at California’s own newspapers, they say they’ve already processed over 300,000 ballots just for Los Angeles County. So this is happening as we speak,” Essayli said, warning that more contested ballots could be filed as the lawsuit plays out in court.

Essayli and U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche are leading the Justice Department’s effort to have the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals force California to void disputed ballots and verify voters’ citizenship before counting them.

The battle centers on a list of more than 20,000 people that California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan failed to review within the deadlines requested by the department.

As federal and state officials battle it out in court, with oral arguments scheduled for Sunday, Essayli fears that California’s continued efforts to fight the DOJ order could lead to a recount of untold numbers of illegal votes.

“Our biggest fear is that they will just try to drag out the clock until all the ballots have been processed, in which case we won’t be able to do anything after the election,” Essayli said, citing recent national election results with razor-thin margins. “Once they count the ballots, there’s no way to go back and undo that.”

On Saturday, in-person early voting for the Nov. 3 election began at 123 voting centers across Los Angeles County, with hundreds more sites expected to open next weekend.

“When you vote in person, it’s even more concerning because that ballot is processed instantly,” Essayli noted of potential non-citizen ballots.

Days earlier, federal agents arrested 28 suspected illegal voters as part of a sweeping operation to target targets across California drawn from a list of 20,000 suspected noncitizens.

They were accused of fraudulently registering to vote in the US elections, in which most of them allegedly voted illegally. Officials called it the largest takedown of its kind in state history.

“All of them were registered voters and some of them voted in several elections. So it’s not a theory,” Essayli said.

The prosecutor questioned why state leaders would oppose the Justice Department’s efforts, saying opponents have dismissed allegations of illegal voters as representing only a “small percentage” of violators.

“So what percentage is acceptable? I’d like to know that from California,” Essayli said.

Before launching its lawsuit, the Justice Department provided Los Angeles County with a password-protected USB drive identifying alleged noncitizens who received mail-in ballots, according to letters sent last week to Weber and Dean Logan.

Logan said at the time that he did not consider the drive to be a secure device and that it did not access any files.

“What are they afraid of? Why are they refusing to work with us to solve this problem?” » said Essayli. “If they are so sure that their results are so good and non-citizens are not voting, then they should have no reason to worry.”