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A union with 60,000 Washington members sued Trump to stop DOJ from holding back 405 ballots

UFCW and two voter groups say DOJ's threats to prosecute election officials break the Voting Rights Act. Election Day is Tuesday.

A union with 60,000 Washington members sued Trump to stop DOJ from holding back 405 ballots
Stock photo, not from the event described. Photo by Tiffany Tertipes on Unsplash

A grocery and meatpacking workers' union and two Washington voter groups sued President Donald Trump and his Justice Department on Friday, asking a federal judge to stop the administration's push to hold back the ballots of about 405 Washington voters it calls noncitizens.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, OneAmerica Votes and the Latino Community Fund of Washington State filed the suit, OneAmerica Votes v. Trump (No. 2:26-cv-04223), in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle, the complaint shows. They call the effort a "flagrantly unlawful, chilling, eleventh-hour operation." Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.

UFCW says it has more than 60,000 members in Washington, "many naturalized U.S. citizens" among them, and is in the final weeks of get-out-the-vote work.

What the government demanded

On Oct. 26, Acting U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd of Seattle and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Pete Serrano of the Eastern District of Washington sent Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs a letter asking him to tell election officials "to not verify the signature and/or tabulate the ballot" of anyone on a list supplied by the Department of Homeland Security. The letter claims the list holds "over 400 individuals and over 1,500 total votes." It also concedes those listed "are or were noncitizens," meaning some may have since become citizens.

That day, Floyd told reporters that "knowingly assisting those who are voting illegally is a crime," according to a press conference transcript filed with the complaint. Asked whether county officials could be charged, he said anyone who "assists someone in voting illegally would be also guilty of that crime under the aiding abetting theory." On Oct. 29, Acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter sent Hobbs a letter warning that failing to preserve election records, including ballots, is a crime punishable by up to a year in prison.

Hobbs refused. In his Oct. 28 response, he wrote that "many of the persons on your list are United States citizens," that many others are not registered or are inactive, and that the list "is not reliable." His office has not released a count. The list arrived as a PDF of a printed spreadsheet, without voter ID numbers or addresses, with duplicate entries and one record from 1994, CBS News reported.

The Justice Department has not made public any evidence behind the list. (Read our earlier coverage of the demand and Hobbs's findings.)

What the lawsuit asks

The complaint names Trump, the Justice Department, Attorney General Todd Blanche, Floyd, Serrano, DHS and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. It argues the demand violates the Constitution's Elections Clause, which leaves running elections to the states; the Tenth Amendment; the Voting Rights Act's ban on intimidating voters and election workers; and the Administrative Procedure Act, the law that limits what federal agencies can do.

"Federal law gives DOJ and DHS no authority whatsoever to do any of this," the complaint says.

The groups want the court to:

  • declare that Washington officials who count ballots under state law don't break federal law just because a voter is on a federal list;
  • bar the administration from pressuring officials to hold back those ballots or threatening them with prosecution;
  • order the government to tell Hobbs and every county auditor in writing that the demand is withdrawn.

Where it stands

No hearing had been set as of Saturday, and the Justice Department had not publicly responded to the suit. Separately, a federal judge in San Francisco on Friday evening temporarily barred DOJ and DHS from threatening election workers over ballots like these, in a case brought by SEIU, AFSCME and other groups. That order runs until Nov. 16. The Washington suit seeks a permanent order.

Hobbs has refused the demand, and Washington counties are processing ballots under state law. If you vote in Washington, return your ballot by Tuesday and track it at VoteWA.gov.

Sources

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