By Tom Hals
WILMINGTON, Delaware, Oct 28 (Reuters) - A Trump administration initiative to deploy hundreds of investigators to hunt for noncitizen voters is illegally intimidating naturalized US citizens and subjecting them to possible disenfranchisement, according to a lawsuit filed by civil rights groups that seeks to end the practice.
The lawsuit filed on Wednesday in California federal court by the American Civil Liberties Union and affiliates also alleges that the administration is demanding state election officials deny ballots to certain voters based on flawed eligibility data, potentially undermining confidence in next week’s midterm elections.
President Donald Trump, whose Republican Party is locked in a tight battle to retain control of both houses of Congress, has repeatedly asserted that noncitizen voting is widespread in US elections, a claim that has been widely debunked.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that the administration has issued more than 100 subpoenas for records on tens of thousands of voters in at least a dozen states as part of the effort to uncover noncitizen voting.
“The administration can’t keep creating political stunts to sow distrust in our elections and lay the groundwork to question results they don’t like,” said Theresa Lee, an attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, in a statement.
HOMELAND SECURITY AMONG DEFENDANTS
The lawsuit names as defendants the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and US Citizenship and Immigration Services and Director Joseph Edlow. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In August, DHS launched the Unlawful Voter Initiative, which directed US Citizenship and Immigration Services personnel to generate lists of individuals to investigate for possibly voting without being a US citizen, as is legally required.
In the months since, the Justice Department has brought more than 100 cases accusing individuals of noncitizen voting. It has also launched a legal effort to prevent California from counting mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters that the administration alleges are noncitizens.
The ACLU lawsuit said the initiative has led to thousands of fully naturalized American citizens being subjected to improper investigations, door-to-door interrogations and potential disenfranchisement.
The groups alleged the initiative violates the Civil Rights Act and laws governing privacy and administrative procedures. The lawsuit seeks to vacate the Unlawful Voter Initiative and asks for the destruction of records that were created and maintained as part of the initiative.
Last week, a federal judge in California placed limits on the Unlawful Voter Initiative in nine states, but the plaintiffs said those restrictions expire at the end of Election Day on November 3, allowing the initiative to be used in future federal elections.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Rod Nickel)
