Justice Department asks Washington state not to count ballots from 400-plus people it says may be noncitizens

As of 6:10 p.m. ET, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026

The U.S. Justice Department has asked Washington state not to count mail ballots from more than 400 registered voters it says may not be U.S. citizens, one week before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, Reuters reported.

In a letter dated Monday, Oct. 26, the top federal prosecutors in Seattle and Spokane asked Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, the state's top elections official, to determine whether the people on the list are citizens and not to count their ballots until that is settled, according to Reuters. The letter said the Justice Department would seek "emergency relief" if the state could not take those steps by noon local time Wednesday.

What the Justice Department says

Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd of the Western District of Washington and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Pete Serrano of the Eastern District said they gave Hobbs a list of 405 people the department says are registered illegally, CBS News reported. They said many are believed to be green-card holders, who have legal immigration status but cannot vote in federal elections. Floyd estimated that more than 1,500 ballots had been cast illegally, according to CBS.

"We have identified over 400 non-citizens who are registered to vote and have voted in multiple elections," Floyd said in a news release Monday, NBC News reported. "This is only the tip of the iceberg." At a news conference, Floyd told KOMO News it was too early to say whether anyone would face criminal charges.

The prosecutors said the Department of Homeland Security is expected to send a second list "imminently," CBS reported. In its letter, the Justice Department acknowledged that some of the people flagged may since have become citizens, but did not say how many, according to Reuters. GROKsiNEWS.com has not independently verified the department's list or its figures.

Washington's response

Hobbs' office said in a statement Monday that it is "carefully reviewing" the request to make sure its response complies with state and federal law. "We take our responsibility to protect voter information seriously and will only respond to requests that follow due process. We saw what happened in California and don't want Washingtonians to be harassed," Hobbs said.

"The timing of this request—one week before the General Election—is no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results," he said.

The office said one of the roughly 400 records in the Justice Department's letter dates to 1994, and that 113.5 million primary and general election ballots have been cast in the state since then. It said the federal system the department relies on "frequently flags legitimate U.S. citizens as noncitizens." It also noted that federal law limits removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election, and that every voter attests to eligibility by signing the ballot return envelope.

Multiple state audits and independent studies have found that voter fraud, including voting by noncitizens, is very rare and has not affected election outcomes, Reuters reported.

The California case

The Washington letter resembles the department's request earlier this month that California not count ballots from about 20,000 alleged noncitizens. After California officials called that demand impractical and questioned the department's data, federal prosecutors sued. A federal appeals court on Monday night dismissed the department's emergency bid to block California from counting those ballots before the trial judge could rule. U.S. District Judge David Carter in Los Angeles had a hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. PDT Tuesday, Reuters reported.