Inside the Trump administration’s controversial lists of alleged noncitizen voters

The Justice Department is pressing California and Washington state to sideline ballots from voters it suspects are noncitizens, a sharp expansion of the Trump administration's push to prove widespread voter fraud. Early voting for the midterms has already begun. Washington was told that 400 possible noncitizens cast 1,500 votes in past elections, while California was told about 20,000 registrants. When California declined, citing its own laws, the department sued, according to CNN.

California, Los Angeles County and civil rights groups told a federal court that the government's information is stale and error-prone. Anna Baldwin, representing LULAC and the NAACP, said the method relies on Social Security numbers attached to voter files to hunt for anyone with an alien number. Bill Essayli, a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, countered that his side has credible evidence and wants to protect lawful voters. Judge David Carter chose to bring in a special master to review the underlying data, with California's ballot-curing window closing December 3. Days earlier, a 9th Circuit panel rejected the department's suit on procedural grounds, though Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez signaled they would also have ruled against it on the merits.

Summarized by PolitiKool from CNN’s reporting. Read the full story at CNN →