The facts
The Trump administration is escalating its dispute with California ahead of the midterm election, warning that local officials who process and tabulate ballots from suspected noncitizen voters risk criminal investigation and prosecution. A letter from Trent McCotter, acting deputy attorney general, states that knowingly facilitating or ignoring a federal crime, such as noncitizen voting in a federal election, is unlawful. The letter, addressed to the Los Angeles County Counsel's office and copied to the California Secretary of State and Los Angeles County Registrar, warns that officials who knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime. This action follows a federal lawsuit filed by the Trump administration to prevent California from counting mail ballots from individuals identified as 'likely' noncitizens. The Justice Department has previously alleged that hundreds of thousands of noncitizens are registered to vote in several states, though election officials have expressed skepticism about these claims. The letter was sent less than three weeks before the November 3 election, intensifying tensions over voter rolls.
Our take
Well, shit. The Justice Department, that venerable institution now run like a mobbed-up collections agency, has decided its core mission three weeks before an election is to threaten local ballot counters with prison. Some dickhead named Trent McCotter - whose title 'acting deputy attorney general' sounds like a temp role for a guy who staples subpoenas - has fired off a letter to Los Angeles County. This legal masterpiece states that if a county worker processes a ballot from someone a federal agency merely identifies as a noncitizen, that worker could become an 'aider and abettor' to a federal crime. Let that sink in. A public servant, following state election law and doing their fucking job, could be treated like a cartel lieutenant because they opened an envelope from a 'suspected' non-voter. This isn't a policy; it's a rectal extraction of pure, unadulterated bullshit.
This letter is the limp, bureaucratic follow-up to the administration's already-filed lawsuit trying to stop California from counting mail ballots from 'likely' noncitizens. 'Likely.' What a wonderfully elastic, evidence-free piece of shit that word is. It means whatever some federal clerk with a hard-on for voter suppression needs it to mean. The DOJ has previously alleged 'hundreds of thousands' of noncitizens are registered, a claim election officials - you know, the people who actually run elections - have called skeptical bullshit. But facts are for pussies. The goal here is to create a climate of fear where every ballot is a potential felony trap, where every county worker pisses themselves wondering if this is the vote that brings the FBI to their door.
It's a coward's gambit, a transparently pathetic attempt to intimidate a state the president hates. They're copying the Secretary of State and the County Registrar not for legal thoroughness, but for maximum public shitting of pants. They want these officials terrified, second-guessing, and slowing the count to a crawl. It's the electoral equivalent of standing outside a polling place in a skeleton mask and waving a bat - just done with official letterhead and the seal of the United States. The vanity is breathtaking. They can't win on the facts of their voter-fraud fantasy, so they resort to legalized thuggery, using the DOJ as their personal intimidation goon squad.
So here we are. The party of 'law and order' is now in the business of threatening to jail people for counting votes based on a suspicion. They aren't protecting democracy; they're taking a massive, steaming piss on its grave. The only crime being aided and abetted here is this administration's full-throated, cuntish assault on the very idea of a free and fair election. What a bunch of absolute bastards.
