Blanche threatens ‘a number of states’ with California-style voting lawsuits

Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday said the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) might launch more California-style lawsuits to block states from counting ballots for the midterm election.

“There’s a number of states that we’re looking at,” Blanche told reporters at a press gaggle in Virginia. “Whether we’re going to do something before the election, I don’t want to get too ahead of the civil lawyers working on those cases.”

Blanche’s comments come amid the DOJ’s unprecedented assault on the Golden State’s election system. Last week, the DOJ sent state and Los Angeles County elections officials a thumb drive containing a list of 20,000 alleged noncitizens that the department claimed were unlawfully registered to vote. Two days later, the DOJ sued both Los Angeles County and the state for refusing the government’s demand to set those voters’ ballots aside until their citizenship can be confirmed.

The Trump administration escalated the fight by asking a federal judge to block California from tabulating ballots cast by voters on the alleged noncitizen list — despite culling the names on the list from unverified sources. On Monday, federal law enforcement arrested 11 people on the list and charged 28, alleging that they illegally registered to vote.

The DOJ’s lawsuit “borders on the absurd” and “threatens to disenfranchise thousands” of voters, California’s lawyers said in a response. Before U.S. District Judge David O. Carter — a Clinton appointee who previously ruled against the administration in a lawsuit demanding to see California’s unredacted voter rolls — could even rule on the DOJ’s request for a temporary restraining order, the department appealed the case late Thursday to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

When asked by a reporter Thursday if the DOJ would potentially block states from certifying their election results on a basis similar to its California claims, Blanche wouldn’t rule it out. 

“It is not DOJ’s intention to — and it’s never our intention to — improperly interfere with elections or the state confirmation process or certification process,” he said. “But, you know, to say that there’s no circumstances that we would ever do that, of course I’m not going to say that.”

Under the Constitution, states administer elections according to the rules laid out by Congress. The executive branch has no role in the election process.