Feds Sue to Wreck Elections Before Voters Finish Voting

The Department of Justice gave California election officials 48 hours to match a list of 20,000 names against voter rolls, then sued the state when the clock ran out. That's how the apparatus sorts out who counts as a voter: a deadline shorter than a long weekend, a list nobody's allowed to check, and a lawsuit as the follow-up.

It's the same machinery at work in Alaska. About nine days ago, the Trump administration asked a federal court to block the state from certifying a victory for Democrat Mary Peltola if Daniel J. Sullivan stays on the ballot. The suit landed 11 days before the Nov. 3 election, even though the final ballot had been set months earlier. The complaint: Daniel J. Sullivan's name is too close to that of Republican Dan Sullivan, and voters might get confused. A federal judge later dismissed the suit.

Who Has the Power

Daniel J. Sullivan isn't a power broker. He's from Petersburg, a small fishing town, and he has said he decided to run on his own. Republicans contend he may have been encouraged to enter the race. The federal government, meanwhile, has pointed its investigative muscle at the situation. Alaska U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman has said the federal investigation has been underway for several months, and agents have reportedly contacted donors to one of the candidates.

In California, the Justice Department wants 20,000 ballots separated and reviewed before they're counted. The administration alleges more than 20,000 noncitizens are registered to vote there. State officials and election experts have questioned the data. An AP analysis found over 40% of names on the DOJ's list aren't even on California's voter rolls. Forty percent. The list that's supposed to justify setting ballots aside names people who aren't registered.

Who Gets Crushed

The cost of all this lands on voters and on the local workers who run the counting. A federal appeals court rejected the administration's request for the records Friday. Another federal judge ordered the Justice Department to stop threatening to prosecute state and local election officials who refuse to comply. Think about what that order says: the federal government was threatening prosecution against the people who administer the vote, to get them to hand over what it wanted.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, who's playing the role of defender here, sent letters to four U.S. district judges warning that the administration could seek search warrants to seize ballots or election materials before the state certifies its results. He said any attempt would interfere with California's "lawful counting of ballots and certifying the results." He also said his state's elections "are NOT Donald Trump's to control." Notice where his argument lands. Not that no one should control them, only whose hands they belong in. And his remedy is to appeal to federal judges, the same system that's being used against him.

What They're Calling "Order"

Civil rights groups are working the only channels the system leaves open. In an October 31 court filing, lawyers for the League of Women Voters of Alaska, Common Cause and two individual intervenors argued that FBI questioning of voters about which candidate they intended to support would be "Orwellian and illegal." The filing does not indicate FBI agents have questioned voters about their ballot choices. The groups are asking a court for protection from the agency that answers to the same government.

The pattern is plain. Two parties fight over who gets to run the ballot box, and the people whose votes are being fought over get warnings, lawsuits and letters. A federal judge dismissed the Alaska suit. An appeals court turned back the California request. Courts slowed it down this time. They didn't change who holds the levers, and the next dispute will arrive with the same list, the same deadline and the same threat.