WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (Reuters) - The US Justice Department on Thursday sued California, asking a federal judge to block the state from counting mail ballots for the November midterm elections from more than 20,000 voters the Trump administration alleges are likely non-citizens.
The lawsuit comes after Reuters reported that the department gave California a 48-hour deadline on Tuesday to review a list of alleged non-citizen voters, provided on a thumb drive, that the department said had been sent mail-in
ballots by California.
Letters addressed to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan demanded that the state and county segregate returned mail-in ballots from voters on the Justice Department's list and not tabulate their votes "until citizenship has been determined."
In cases where ballots have not been sent out yet, the Justice Department ordered California officials to withhold them from those on the list until their citizenship is confirmed.
The lawsuit, filed in US District Court for the Central District of California, seeks a court order preventing California from "tabulating in federal elections vote-by-mail ballots received" from voters on the list, which the DOJ said included more than 20,000 voters, until their immigration status is verified.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; editing by Michelle Nichols )
