The Trump administration on Monday (October 26, 2026) asked Washington state to set aside any ballots received from more than 400 people it suspects registered to vote without U.S. citizenship.
In a letter to the Washington Secretary of State’s Office, the Justice Department said it had identified 1,500 votes cast by over 400 people in prior elections. The state has more than 5 million registered voters. His office noted that it had received about 60 subpoenas from the Justice Department since last month seeking information about voters. The request in Washington is similar to Justice Department attempt to require California to sequester mail ballots from up to 20,000 people the federal government suspects may not be citizens. Los Angeles County Assistant Registrar-Recorder Monica Flores said in a court filing that her staff went through a sample of 200 records from the Trump administration’s list. In Nevada, Trump’s administration alleged there were 1,500 potential noncitizen voters on the rolls, but subsequent investigation found zero.
Investigations into prior allegations of noncitizen voters have revealed far fewer instances than the Trump administration has claimed. It asked the state to set aside any ballots the people might cast in next month’s midterm until state officials can confirm they are legally eligible to vote. Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs was reviewing the administration’s demand. The effort is the latest by the administration to identify noncitizen voters, even though noncitizen voting is exceptionally rare. President Donald Trump has repeatedly sought to undermine public confidence in elections. They found the sample included canceled or inactive registrations, people with no voting history and voters who appeared to have been born in the United States. It also noted that some of the people it suspects registered without citizenship may have since become naturalized.
“We are asking the state to set aside those ballots until we can confirm they are legal voters,” Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd said in a news conference. The Justice Department told Washington it anticipates sending the state an additional list of people it suspects are not citizens prior to Election Day.
