Trump admin demands Washington set aside 400 ballots it says are from noncitizens

Washington's secretary of state expressed skepticism about the request's timing.

The Justice Department is asking election officials in Washington state to set aside hundreds of ballots it says may belong to noncitizen voters, the latest move by the Trump administration to intervene in a state-run election just days before the midterms.

The move sparked backlash from state officials who said the Justice Department’s intention in publicizing these allegations so close to an election was to create "unfounded suspicion."

Federal prosecutors in Washington state claimed in a statement Monday that the more than 400 individuals on the list represented “only the tip of the iceberg.” The statement accompanied a letter sent by the state’s two U.S. attorneys demanding that election officials set aside any ballots belonging to individuals on the list. ABC News has not seen the letter.

The Justice Department’s messaging in Washington on Monday echoes steps it took ahead of a lawsuit it filed last week against California, where it has sued to prevent the state from counting more than 20,000 ballots it claims may belong to noncitizen voters.

The Trump administration has promoted a number isolated cases of alleged noncitizen voting in recent weeks as evidence of rampant election fraud. But all available evidence suggests voter fraud and noncitizen voting remains exceedingly rare, and certainly not widespread enough to alter the outcome of any election.

A federal appeals court declined to intervene in that matter and said that the "emergency" the DOJ claimed was in part "self-constructed."

Local officials in Los Angeles said a sampling of the 20,000 ballots surveyed showed a "high percentage" of people who say they were born in the U.S.

"We saw what happened in California and don't want Washingtonians to be harassed," Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said in a statement on Monday responding to the Justice Department's letter.

Hobbs wrote in his response that at least one of the individuals on the Justice Department’s list dates back to 1994. Since then, 113.5 million primary and general election ballots have been cast in Washington, according to the secretary of state’s office.

"The timing of this request -- one week before the General Election -- is no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results," Hobbs added. "We are carefully reviewing the request and assessing the information sought to ensure that our response complies with applicable state and federal laws."