Justice Department says it will review Washington's reply on mail ballots from more than 400 people it says may not be citizens

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle said Wednesday, Oct. 28, that the Justice Department had received Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs' reply and that Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd and Pete Serrano, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, would “take some time to review it and decide next steps,” The Spokesman-Review reported, citing an email.¹ SignalData found no Justice Department lawsuit against Washington in Eastern or Western District of Washington court dockets as of 11:25 p.m. EDT Wednesday.

Hobbs replied earlier Wednesday to the department's request that the state hold back ballots from more than 400 people it says are or were noncitizens. Hobbs wrote that a preliminary review found the list “includes United States citizens and is not reliable,” and that refusing to count a ballot solely because the voter's name is on it would likely violate the law.²

He wrote that the list was a PDF of a printed spreadsheet without voter ID numbers or addresses, had some duplicate entries and gave Election Day as Nov. 2 rather than Nov. 3, and he asked the department for any individualized proof it has. “The timing of your letter is profoundly disappointing,” he wrote.²

What the department's letter asks

The department's three-page letter, dated Monday, Oct. 26, says a Department of Homeland Security list “is comprised of over 400 individuals and over 1,500 total votes.” It states that the people listed are or were noncitizens, adding that they may have since naturalized, and says DHS found “with a high level of confidence” that they voted, as recently as the August 2026 primary. It set a deadline of “October 28 at noon PST” and said that otherwise “the United States will have no choice but to seek emergency relief.”³

The letter, from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Washington and signed by Serrano, asks the state to:

• Review the list within 24 hours of receiving the letter to see whether any U.S. citizens are on it.
• Direct election officials, if a ballot from anyone on the list has been or is returned, not to verify the signature or tabulate the ballot until the person's citizenship is determined.
• Carry out the process by contacting DHS.³

The letter says the department expects a second list from DHS before the general election.³

A same-day release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington said, “Washington is now on notice that non-citizens are voting.”⁴

What each side says

Justice Department: Floyd said in the release, “We have identified over 400 non-citizens who are registered to vote and have voted in multiple elections.”⁴ A department spokesperson told Reuters, “With his (Hobbs') help, we can ensure that only American citizens vote in Washington's elections.”⁵

Washington Secretary of State's Office: An Oct. 26 statement said the timing, a week before the general election, “is no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion” on the results and that “One of the approximately 400 records in the DOJ letter is from 1994.” Hobbs said the office “will only respond to requests that follow due process.”⁶

The California request

The department made a similar request to California covering around 20,000 people it described as noncitizens, then went to court; Reuters reported a hearing was set for Tuesday, Oct. 27, in Los Angeles.⁵

What the records do not show

• The department's letter and release do not explain how DHS compiled the list; SignalData did not see the list.³⁴
• Hobbs' reply does not say how many listed people the state found to be citizens.²
• No court has found anyone on the list to be a noncitizen, and the records do not say how many listed people have returned a ballot this year.
• The department has not said publicly what its next steps will be.¹