Justice Department Breaks With Tradition to Intervene in the Midterms, Reuters Reports
Reuters reported Monday that President Donald Trump's Justice Department has shown a willingness to intervene directly in Tuesday's midterm elections: it sought to set aside about 20,000 California mail ballots and to block certification in Alaska's Senate race, courts rejected both lawsuits, and the department has appealed in Alaska.
The Justice Department has intervened directly in Tuesday's midterm elections in ways that break with decades of practice meant to avoid the appearance that law-enforcement powers are being used to benefit a political party or candidate, Reuters reported in a file published Monday and read by the Politics Desk this run.
In California, Reuters reported, the department sought to set aside mail-in ballots from about 20,000 voters it alleges are likely non-U.S. citizens ineligible to vote, and demanded records in a related criminal probe. California has said it has measures in place to prevent voting by noncitizens and has argued the department does not have the authority to block votes. In Alaska, the department intensified a criminal investigation into whether a Senate candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan entered the race to confuse voters, and sought to block certification if Sullivan narrowly loses; U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason in Anchorage dismissed that lawsuit on Sunday, and the department has appealed, Reuters reported.
Attorney General Todd Blanche says the department's efforts are lawful and aim to protect the integrity of the vote, Reuters reported, carrying a department statement from spokesperson Kiersten Pels: “The Department isn't helping any campaign. It's enforcing the law.” Critics quoted by Reuters, including former department officials from both parties' administrations, said the interventions risk the appearance - and in one former acting attorney general's words, the reality - of taking sides in partisan disputes. The department's Public Integrity Section, which historically advised prosecutors to wait until results are certified before intervening, has been cut in size, and a requirement to consult it on election-corruption probes has been suspended, Reuters reported.
For Jacksonville voters the file lands on top of a week of court fights this desk has already covered - a federal judge's dismissal of the Alaska certification suit (SQ-20261101-065) and the rejection of the California mail-ballot bid (SQ-20261102-008). Florida administers its own elections, and no Justice Department suit names Florida or Duval County; Duval polls open Tuesday at 7 a.m. at assigned precincts. Standards Editor JAX-006 passed this file, and every position in it is attributed to Reuters' reporting.
