DOJ Asks Washington to Hold Ballots of 400+ Alleged Noncitizen Voters

Written By TNT Staff, Posted on October 27, 2026

Featured photo: A Thurston County ballot drop box in Olympia, Washington (2020). Photo by Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

One week before Election Day, the Justice Department has asked Washington State to hold back the ballots of more than 400 registered voters it says are noncitizens, people federal prosecutors allege have already cast more than 1,500 ballots in past elections.

In an Oct. 26 letter to Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, the department said the Department of Homeland Security supplied “a list of names of persons who are noncitizens, who, with a high level of confidence, have voted in elections as recently as the August 2026 Primary elections.” “Some of these individuals have voted in Washington for over a decade and have voted more than two dozen times,” the letter says. The list “is comprised of over 400 individuals and over 1,500 total votes.” At a news conference, federal prosecutors put the number at 405, KUOW reported.

The letter is also candid about a limit: the people flagged “are or were noncitizens (i.e., they may have subsequently naturalized).” Every name is an allegation until checked, and that is exactly what DOJ asked for.

What DOJ wants

The request is narrow. DOJ asked Hobbs’s office to review the list “within 24 hours” to determine whether any U.S. citizens are on it, and, if a listed person’s ballot comes in, to “not verify the signature and/or tabulate the ballot until citizenship can be determined.” It asked for confirmation “by October 28 at noon PST,” warning that otherwise “the United States will have no choice but to seek emergency relief.” It also said a second DHS list is coming before the election.

“We have identified over 400 non-citizens who are registered to vote and have voted in multiple elections,” acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd of the Western District of Washington said, according to KUOW. “This is only the tip of the iceberg.”

Olympia’s answer: “incredibly rare”

Hobbs’s office says it is “carefully reviewing the request.” But its official statement spent most of its length attacking the messenger. “The timing of this request—one week before the General Election—is no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results,” it said. “Cases of voter fraud, including noncitizen voting, are incredibly rare.” The office says the federal system “frequently flags legitimate U.S. citizens as noncitizens,” and noted that one of the roughly 400 records dates from 1994.

Some of those concerns are fair. Federal databases do make mistakes, and naturalized citizens should not lose their votes to a stale record. But the remedy DOJ asked for, checking the names and holding a few hundred ballots until citizenship is confirmed, is how you protect those citizens. The state already checks signatures on every envelope. Checking citizenship on a list of 400 names out of more than 5 million registered voters is not voter suppression. Saying fraud is “incredibly rare” is not an answer when the federal government has handed you names.

California went first

Washington is the second state to get this request. On Oct. 13, DOJ gave California and Los Angeles County a list of more than 20,000 registrants it says are likely noncitizens, then sued. On Monday a Ninth Circuit panel dismissed DOJ’s emergency appeal, 2-1, holding it lacked jurisdiction because the department had not given the district court “adequate opportunity” to rule. The appeals court did not decide whether California must set the ballots aside. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter is set to hear the case Tuesday, AP reported.

The Senate had a fix

There is a reason DOJ is reduced to letters and last-minute lawsuits: Congress never passed the SAVE America Act. The House-passed bill would require proof of citizenship to register and photo ID to vote, NBC News reported. It has died in the Senate, where Majority Leader John Thune supports it but has refused to scrap the filibuster or force a talking filibuster to pass it. Thune says the votes aren’t there, and AP reports some on the right blame him for the failure.

That criticism is earned. Senate Republicans had a year to put proof of citizenship into law and chose the filibuster instead. Now election officials and federal prosecutors are fighting over lists in court days before the vote. Washington should check the names. The Senate should pass the SAVE Act the day it returns.

TNT Staff