A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The Trump administration's fight with California elections officials over the voter rolls is intensifying.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
On Monday, the Department of Justice filed charges against more than two dozen people for voting crimes in previous elections. Just last week, the Department of Justice sued the state and Los Angeles County because local officials declined to investigate the administration's noncitizen-voting allegations. So with Election Day coming, where's all this heading?
MARTÍNEZ: All right. Let's bring in NPR voting correspondent Miles Parks to answer that question. Miles, let's start with that LA lawsuit. What's the latest here?
MILES PARKS, BYLINE: So the Department of Justice filed an emergency motion just yesterday asking a federal court to force LA County and the state of California to do what it wants as soon as possible. This all began, A, about a week ago, last Tuesday, when the DOJ delivered a thumb drive to Los Angeles County that contained the names of 20,000 people all over California who are on the state's voter rolls and who the federal government says are likely noncitizens.
Now, I should say there are a lot of reasons to be skeptical of that number. But the DOJ wants California to segregate the ballots of everyone on this list and for them not to be counted until those people have been investigated. The state says the federal government has not provided evidence for its claims and doing what the DOJ asks would probably violate state and federal law.
MARTÍNEZ: What are the chances the DOJ'll be successful?
PARKS: Election law experts are pretty skeptical. I mean, this DOJ has tried a bunch of different ways to compel states to change how they vote, and there just hasn't been much success. It would be pretty shocking if, two weeks before an election, when ballots have already gone out, that that changes.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. So we mentioned the charges that were filed yesterday against noncitizens in California for alleged voting crimes. Are these two things related somehow?
PARKS: Yes. So the 28 people charged yesterday were supposedly on this broader list of 20,000 names that was provided to local officials. These were all green card holders who allegedly registered to vote. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter announced the charges at a press conference yesterday.
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TRENT MCCOTTER: This Department of Justice will not look the other way while noncitizens vote in federal elections. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for California and LA County.
PARKS: I should say there's still a lot we don't know about these cases. Research has found that in many of these cases where legal permanent residents do register to vote, it's often found to be because of bureaucratic errors or because they didn't realize it was illegal. It just usually does not make that much sense that someone would risk their chance at permanent citizenship to cast one vote.
MARTÍNEZ: And so on that, Miles, because 28 people - I mean, that doesn't sound like this big, grand conspiracy that the president has talked about for so many years.
PARKS: Exactly. I mean, just for context, 28 people is roughly 0.0001% of California's registered voters. But election experts I talk to say announcing charges like this - and this is something we've seen more and more in recent days as early voting is beginning across the country - it allows the Trump administration to give the impression that this idea of noncitizen voting is happening more than it is.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. So two weeks short of Election Day here. So what are people worried about?
PARKS: So the No. 1 fear from election experts is that these sort of accusations could be leveraged in some way by federal law enforcement to potentially confiscate ballots in the period after voting ends during counting. But I should say voting officials are preparing for that. Dana Lewis is a Republican election official in Pinal County, Arizona. And she told me election officials everywhere are watching this legal process play out in California and making plans as though they'll be next.
DANA LEWIS: When this impacts another administration, you know, or jurisdiction, you automatically have to feel that. If it's happening in Georgia, if it's happening in Colorado or California, we're all watching.
PARKS: Local officials I talk to say they have their county attorneys on speed dial right now just in case the DOJ comes knocking at their door.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. We'll have you on speed dial as well. NPR's Miles Parks. Thanks a lot.
PARKS: Thanks, A. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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