Trump administration uses DOJ to intimidate Washington voters

By Alma Cordero · Reporting from El Paso · October 27, 2026

The Trump administration’s demand to sequester ballots in Washington and California is a coordinated strike to intimidate voters and cast suspicion on the election.

Imagine the phone call. Imagine the knock on the door. For a family living in the shadows, a letter from the federal government is never just a letter. It is a threat. It is the sound of a door closing.

The Trump administration is using the Department of Justice to bring that fear into the voting booth. On October 26, 2026, the DOJ asked Washington state to set aside ballots from more than 400 people. They claim these people are noncitizens. This is not a search for the truth. It is a campaign of intimidation.

The math of a manufactured crisis

The numbers do not add up to a crisis. Washington has more than 5 million registered voters. The DOJ is obsessing over 405 of them. According to Democracy Docket, the Justice Department questioned votes cast by these people in prior elections. One person on that list last voted in 1994.

Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd calls this "the tip of the iceberg." He tells the public that noncitizens are committing crimes by voting. But the evidence is thin.

The timing is the real tell. The request came one week before the general election. Federal law prohibits officials from removing voters during a 90-day "quiet period" before an election. The DOJ knows this. By asking the state to "sequester" ballots, they are trying to bypass the law. They want to cast a shadow of suspicion over the results before the first mail-in ballot is even opened. Esta gente knows how to use the law to break the spirit of the voter.

A blueprint for exclusion

This is not a sudden concern for election integrity. It is a coordinated strike. The Guardian reports that the administration made a similar demand in California less than two weeks earlier. In that state, the DOJ sued to set aside ballots from up to 20,000 people.

The mechanism here is Operation Streamline. Just as that initiative used mass processing and "zero-tolerance" tactics to criminalize border crossing, the DOJ is now using mass lists to criminalize the act of registration. Both rely on the same logic: target a vulnerable population, process them in bulk, and use the threat of prison to ensure they stay away from the levers of power.

We have seen this play before. It looks like Arizona Senate Bill 1070, which used state law to create a climate of fear for noncitizens. It is the same security apparatus we see in Operation Lone Star, where the guise of law and order hides a desire to exclude.

The administration's advocates will say they are protecting the sanctity of the vote. They will argue that one illegal vote cancels out a legal one. But the facts defeat them. Monica Flores, a Los Angeles county assistant registrar-recorder, found that a sample of 200 records from the administration’s list included people born in the United States. The DOJ is not cleaning the rolls. They are polluting them with lies.

The pursuit of the margin

Follow the map and you find the motive. Washington, California, and Alaska all have races that could decide the balance of power in the US Capitol. In Washington’s third congressional district, the race is one of the most competitive in the country. Democrats are counting on Marie Gluesenkamp Perez to help retake the House majority.

The DOJ is not acting as a law enforcement agency. It is acting as a campaign arm for Donald Trump. In a September 2026 proclamation, Trump claimed his leadership would protect the Constitution and end the "weaponization" of government. Yet, as NBC News reports, the DOJ is now intervening in election certifications in Alaska and demanding private data from Washington.

They want addresses, dates of birth, and partial social security numbers. They are hunting for reasons to disqualify voters in districts where the margin is thin.

The Justice Department is treating the voter rolls like a crime scene. But the only crime here is the attempt to steal the election before it happens.

The Trump administration is weaponizing the DOJ to turn the act of voting into a legal liability. By targeting noncitizens and naturalized citizens alike, they are telling every immigrant in this country that the state is watching. Justice requires that these lists be rejected and that the DOJ be stripped of its power to interfere in state elections. This is not about the law; it is about the fence.

Sources

1. The Guardian: Trump administration asks Washington to set aside hundreds of ballots from suspected noncitizen voters
2. NBC News: DOJ asks Washington state to set aside 400 ballots from voters it says may be noncitizens
3. Democracy Docket: DOJ demands Washington set aside ballots from alleged noncitizens on state roll