SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – The U.S. Justice Department has arrested 11 out of 28 people here in California who are facing election crime charges.
“This morning we're announcing that the Department of Justice has charged 28 foreign nationals across the state of California with various voting and registration crimes, among others,” Trent McCotter, U.S. Deputy Attorney General, said. “I can also confirm today that these 28 defendants are on the list of 20,000 that was sent to California and LA County last week as part of our ongoing campaign to enlist California in our efforts to clean up their voter rolls and ensure that only citizens vote.”
The Justice Department is announcing the charges against more than two dozen people here in California accused of election crimes.
“We began arresting these individuals this morning, early this morning. My understanding is at least 11 are in custody so far. The rest will be in custody, uh, in the near future,” Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney, said.
Of the 28 facing charges, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California said three cases it’s prosecuting have individuals from Escondido, National City and San Diego.
“The allegations here are actually fairly straightforward. The allegations are that people registered to vote and were not eligible to do so because they were not citizens,” Jessica Levinson, Professor at Loyola Law School, said.
Levinson is an election law expert. She told ABC 10News the DOJ has been looking into alleged voter fraud for some time.
“I think that shows, in fact, how rare any type of widespread or systemic voter fraud really is in a state of 23 million people to have the federal government be looking for months into an issue,” Levinson said.
ABC 10News asked her if there’s a chance we could see more of these allegations or charges being issued in the future.
“Is it possible that there will be more? And more indictments? Absolutely. Do I think that we're going to conclude that there are 20,000 or 190,000 people in California who are not eligible to vote? I haven't seen any evidence to indicate that we're near those numbers,” Levinson said.
ABC 10News asked the U.S. Attorney's Office if any of the alleged votes made in San Diego County were counted in an election; they weren't able to say.
