Washington State Finds Citizens on DOJ’s Purported List of Noncitizen Voters

Washington State Describes DOJ’s Supposed Noncitizen Voter List as ‘Not Reliable’

Washington State late Wednesday responded to the DOJ’s demand that it segregate 400 ballots from supposed noncitizen voters. Washington, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs wrote in a letter to the state’s two U.S. attorneys, would not be doing as the DOJ asked.

“This list includes United States citizens and is not reliable,” he wrote. “Without individualized proof of ineligibility, it would be both irresponsible and illegal for election officials to decline to process a registered voter’s ballot. If you have individualized proof, I invite you to provide it so election officials can take appropriate steps that are consistent with federal and state law.”

Hobbs also described the timing of the letter as “profoundly disappointing,” noting that Washington had mailed out ballots weeks ago.

“Despite that, you sent your letter well after that date and barely one week before Election Day,” it continued. “As you know, my office holds regular consultations with your office in the months leading up to elections. If you had valid concerns about voter registrations, the time to raise them was months ago. Your decision to wait until the eve of an election and announce those concerns at a press conference instead of timely providing the list and any corroborating evidence to my office is not a sign of good faith to ensure a free, fair, and accurate election.”

The DOJ sent similar lists to various counties in California, ordering officials there to segregate ballots from people on the lists. But those lists had similar problems to Washington’s. One county election official received a list of people who did not live in her county; another received a list of people who had not voted, according to the New York Times.

In a statement that I first saw reported by CalMatters, Butte County, California’s Clerk-Recorder said the list he received was “a print screen of a poorly formatted excel spreadsheet with missing and jumbled information.” He said of the 47 people on the list the DOJ sent to him, 32 were not on the active voter rolls and were not sent ballots; seven others “did not have sufficient information … to match to our voter list with confidence”; and six entries seemed to describe people who may not have been eligible to vote, but the DOJ did not provide evidence on why it believed that to be the case.

“Given the overall inaccuracy of the list provided and its lack of specificity, I believe the Department of Justice has not met that burden,” the clerk-recorder, Keaton Denlay, said. “There will be no further action taken at this time.”

“Happy voting,” he signed off.

Late Wednesday, a federal district court declined to order Los Angeles to carry out the scheme in a case that’s become the primary vehicle for deciding the legality of what the DOJ is trying to do.

“Eroded trust in our democracy is irreparable. Once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred,” judge David O. Carter wrote. “If the Executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger.

“This Court declines to be a party to such process,” he concluded.

Flávio Bolsonaro Says He Is the True Leader of Brazil

• I’ve been writing about the saga of Flávio Bolsonaro here over the last few days in part because his movement has overlap with right-wing nationalism in the U.S. in ways that go deeper than the superficial similarities. Yes, his father Jair Bolsonaro in 2022 attempted a coup that looked extremely similar to January 6. Yes, the Bolsonaro family has drawn on support from the same influencers and operatives who push Trump, including Steve Bannon and Nick Shirley.
• But Bolsonaro and Trump’s movement is hyper-connected in more nuanced ways, and often motivated by the same very-online culture war greivances — a description that also applies to Argentina’s Javier Milei and various right-wing actors in Europe. Its a relationship that sees the Latin American leaders and their allies repeatedly turn up at places like CPAC, while Trump’s biggest supporters also travel the globe, trying to build something that draws on but extends beyond America’s unique strain of right-wing nationalism. There’s also the cross-pollination of ideas: DOGE was inspired in part by Milei; the State Department’s Office of Remigration takes its name from European ultra-nationalists.
• So anyway, the latest with Flávio: In a letter posted to X (where else) Wednesday, he described himself as Brazil’s leader, and thanked Milei and Trump for assisting with his covert flight to the U.S.
• His allies, however, described to the Washington Post a fractured movement unsure of its next steps.
• The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, has a fascinatingly detailed story on his escape, including the use of decoys to confound authorities, describing his journey by car from Brazil into Argentina, then to Ecuador, and on to Miami.

Tabs

• Jason Turkish, fiancé to former Michigan candidate for Senate Haley Stevens (D), says he will vote for Republican Mike Rogers. Though Michigan Democrats were praised for coming together to back voters’ candidate of choice after a nasty, three-way primary, Turkish, a prolific political donor who has supported both parties, is undercutting that just a bit, explaining in detail to the Detroit News why he cannot vote for Abdul El-Sayed. “We have never seen a candidate for U.S. Senate act so recklessly toward the safety of Jews in the community as we have seen from Abdul,” he says. Theirs is “a household divided,” Stevens offered to CNN.
• Google’s Gemini will not give a straight answer on who won the 2020 election, Mediaite reported yesterday, encouraging users who asked the question to “review the documents provided by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the records maintained by the National Archives.” The company told Business Insider it was trying to fix the issue.

Man of the Hour

It’s James O’Keefe, the notorious conservative influencer known for highly misleading hidden-camera stings. In an attempt to show how easy it is to commit voter fraud in Minnesota, O’Keefe and a fellow influencer dressed in “Muslim” clothes and visited polling sites. On Wednesday, they were hit with state charges for allegedly committing the very crimes they tried to document themselves getting away with.