U.S. Attorneys Serve California County Registrars With Lists of "Likely Aliens" and a 48-Hour Demand; Letters Are in the Court Record

A Secretary of State attorney swore that letters from U.S. Attorney’s Offices had reached at least 40 counties, and the State attached some of them to its supplemental opposition (the Evans declaration exhibits). The Fresno, Madera and Sacramento letters are signed by Eric Grant, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, not by the Central District’s Bilal Essayli. Each carries a county-specific list: 670 likely aliens for Fresno, 602 for Sacramento, 78 for Madera.

The Fresno letter asks the county to commit to working with DOJ and DHS within 48 hours, to send nonpublic registration data, and to “segregate—not cancel—those individuals’ vote-by-mail ballots.” It warns that officials who tabulate such ballots “risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime.” The 48 hours runs to a commitment and data, not to a finished verification.

The county count is not settled. NBC reported letters to 57 of California’s 58 counties. Democracy Docket, citing the Times, wrote that letters went to all 58 California counties. The L.A. County registrar’s office said at least 18. The Secretary of State’s sworn figure is at least 40. No letter to every county has been seen. The San Bernardino letter, per NBC, came from Essayli with a list of 1,133 names, and he told NBC “Any election official who knowingly processes the ballot of a noncitizen is opening themselves to legal jeopardy.”