Washington Rejects DOJ Voter List

What happened

Updated Oct 29, 4:51pm ET

Washington officials rejected the Justice Department’s list of alleged noncitizen voters as unreliable. The department had asked Washington to set aside ballots from more than 400 people it said it believes are noncitizens registered to vote. The dispute arose just over a week before the Nov. 3 election, after ballots had been mailed and voting was underway. Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said a preliminary review found U.S. citizens, inactive registrations and people not currently registered. Hobbs said withholding ballots without individualized proof would be irresponsible and illegal. The DOJ said it sought to protect eligible citizens’ votes.

How the left told it

Left-leaning outlets framed the case as another sign that the administration’s voter-fraud push relies on weak data, not proven wrongdoing. CNN emphasized flawed data-matching and said the broader search still had not supported sweeping fraud claims. Mother Jones cast the interventions as bad-faith election interference rather than neutral enforcement.

How the right told it

Right-leaning outlets framed the dispute as evidence that election systems let noncitizens onto voter rolls, while officials resisted scrutiny. Fox News cited J. Christian Adams blaming automatic registration and unused federal checks for the problem. The Post Millennial portrayed Washington Democrats as refusing a DOJ request tied to potentially unlawful ballots.