By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON, Oct 29 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration has demanded records from California as part of a criminal investigation into alleged voting by noncitizens – escalating its battle with the largest US state ahead of Tuesday's midterm election.
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's office received federal grand jury subpoenas last week seeking information about the agency's methods for detecting "unlawful voting by aliens" and preventing such ballots from
being counted, according to copies of the subpoenas seen by Reuters on Thursday.
The Trump Justice Department has heaped pressure on California over alleged noncitizen voting, filing a civil lawsuit against the state and sending a series of letters this month warning election officials that they risk criminal exposure if they do not verify voters' citizenship status.
The subpoenas also seek records related to Los Angeles County's response to those letters, according to the documents.
The demands are part of a nationwide effort by the Trump administration to identify cases of voter fraud, raising concerns among Democrats and other critics that Trump could use the issue to sow doubt about the results of the election, which will determine control of Congress.
"At every step, the US Department of Justice has taken a confrontational, adversarial approach," Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan said in a statement on Thursday. "Election officials are acting in accordance with state and federal law."
It was not immediately clear if Logan's office was the focus of the investigation.
LEGAL BATTLE
Though studies have repeatedly shown that voting by noncitizens is rare and has no impact on election results, the Trump administration has intensely focused on the issue.
The Justice Department has charged 156 immigrants with voting or registering to vote unlawfully in a pre-midterm push, acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter told reporters on Thursday. The agency has used subpoenas to state and local election officials to build such cases.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on the latest subpoenas but said that California and the federal government "agree that noncitizen voting is properly addressed through criminal law."
On Wednesday, a federal judge rejected a Justice Department request to temporarily block California from counting mail-in ballots from a list of 20,000 voters the administration alleges are likely noncitizens. The DOJ has appealed the ruling.
Lawyers for California have questioned the reliability of the Trump administration's immigration data and argued that the federal government does not have the authority to intervene in its elections.
Under the US Constitution, states administer elections and not the federal government.
Before ruling against the DOJ, US District Judge David Carter told agency lawyers at a hearing on Tuesday that the "court believes that it would be wise that any threats to state and county election employees cease immediately."
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Jesse Mesner-Hage and Stephen Coates)
