Highlights
- The Justice Department sent identical letters to all 50 states warning election officials of criminal penalties for failing to preserve ballots and voter-registration records for 22 months.
- Letters signed by acting Deputy AG Trent McCotter cite Section 20701, carrying penalties of up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine.
- A federal judge had admonished the Trump administration just two days earlier to stop threatening election officials with criminal prosecution.
- Election law experts say the nationwide mailing is without precedent and appears designed to intimidate rather than inform.
The Justice Department sent letters to election officials in all 50 states on Oct. 29 warning that willfully failing to preserve ballots, voter-registration records, and other election materials for 22 months after a federal election is a federal crime, punishable by up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine under Section 20701.
The letters were signed by acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter, the department's second-highest-ranking official, and confirmed as identical by multiple state election offices that spoke with Votebeat, the nonprofit that originally reported the story and whose reporting the Arizona Mirror republished. The letters also warn that it is unlawful to willfully steal, destroy, conceal, mutilate, or alter election records.
The mailing came two days after U.S. District Judge David O. Carter verbally admonished the Trump administration for threatening election officials with criminal prosecution in a separate dispute over ballots cast by suspected noncitizens. In a written ruling Wednesday, Carter rejected the DOJ's attempt to force California to set aside ballots from roughly 20,000 voters and reiterated his warning that the threats must stop.
Justin Levitt, a former Justice Department official and White House voting rights adviser under President Biden, said he was unaware of any precedent for a nationwide reminder of this kind. "Election officials know that they have an obligation to comply with this law — they know that real, real well — and this certainly looks like it's meant to intimidate rather than to inform," Levitt said.
Joshua Douglas, an election law professor at the University of Kentucky, said he had never seen the DOJ send this kind of letter across the country in the days before an election. He noted the letters impose no new legal requirements but create additional burdens for officials already consumed with Election Day preparations. Douglas said the mailing felt unnecessary and likely to generate confusion, though he acknowledged it did not appear to target officials based on political affiliation.
The October letters are the third round of DOJ warnings to state election officials this cycle. A July mailing warned officials they could face prosecution for knowingly allowing noncitizens to vote; September letters, signed by Eric Neff, the acting chief of the civil rights division's voting section, directed 29 states and Washington, D.C., to preserve records tied to ongoing litigation over voter-registration data. Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general overseeing the civil rights division, described those September notices at the time as standard litigation practice. The October letters, by contrast, cite an existing preservation requirement dating to 1960 without identifying a particular violation or pending investigation, and were signed by a more senior official than either of the prior rounds.
McCotter has been directly involved in the DOJ's election litigation in recent weeks. Earlier this month he signed letters to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan demanding they investigate a federal list of suspected noncitizens who had received mail ballots, giving officials 48 hours to respond and warning of emergency court intervention. The Justice Department subsequently sued California; Carter rejected that request Wednesday. The DOJ appealed and has since issued grand jury subpoenas to California election officials.
Votebeat asked the Justice Department why the letters were sent days before Election Day, why McCotter personally signed them, and whether similar reminders had been issued before prior federal elections. The department had not responded as of publication.
A federal judge in Washington separately ordered the DOJ on Thursday to disclose by Friday noon which states had received letters demanding that ballots from suspected noncitizens be set aside.
Sources
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- azmirror.com retrieved 30/10/2026 19:11
Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 30/10/2026 19:11. Every claim traces to a source.
