California county clerk says federal agents threatened him over flawed voter fraud list

A California county elections official says the Department of Justice handed him a error-filled list of alleged noncitizen voters and warned that he could face criminal prosecution if he did not act on it. Keaton Denlay, the clerk-recorder and registrar of voters for Butte County, north of Sacramento, said he chose not to comply.

Denlay said a person identifying himself as a Department of Homeland Security agent delivered the paperwork to his office at about 3.30pm on Friday. The package included a DoJ demand letter that misspelled his name as "Danlay", two declarations and a two-page list of names. Denlay described the list as what looked like a printout of a "poorly formatted Excel spreadsheet with missing and jumbled information".

The letter said the list held 47 "likely aliens" who were unlawfully registered. It asked for more details on them, including social security numbers, and told him to have ballots from anyone whose citizenship he could not confirm set aside, though not canceled, until their status was settled. It set a 48-hour deadline. The Guardian reviewed the letter, which warned that people who knowingly count ballots from those identified as noncitizens "risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime."

Denlay said the list did not match the letter's summary. The two pages were copies of the same list, and it held 46 names rather than 47, with one name appearing twice. Of the 45 distinct names, 32 were not on Butte County's active voter rolls and were never sent ballots. Seven more lacked enough information, such as a full name, address, date of birth or license number, to check against county records. That left six names that might be ineligible according to the DoJ.

In a statement posted on the county website, Denlay noted that California law puts the burden on a challenger to establish "extraordinary proof of the validity of the challenge at the time the challenge is made." He wrote that, given the list's inaccuracy and lack of detail, he believes the Justice Department did not meet that burden. He said he never received a digital copy of the spreadsheet or any further contact from the DoJ, and that he reviewed the records himself so staff could stay focused on the election.

Speaking in an interview on Wednesday, Denlay said the threats were "absurd" and that he was "not losing any sleep over it." He also described a "rollercoaster of emotions" after receiving the letter, saying he had to take a claim of fraud from a purported federal agent seriously, but found "there wasn't any actionable information for me there."

The episode is part of a broader push by the DoJ in the final weeks of the midterm elections. The department has alleged that 20,000 California voters are likely noncitizens and has sued to stop those ballots from being counted. State officials reject the claim, saying the data is unreliable, citizens risk losing their vote, and the federal government lacks authority to intervene this way. A federal judge weighing the lawsuit has rebuked DoJ leaders for public statements threatening to charge election officials.

Other counties received similar letters. Francisco Diaz, registrar of voters in San Benito County, said his office got a list of 33 names and found some were not registered there, adding: "We will not be intimidated by agents with guns for simply doing our jobs." CalMatters reported that the Orange County registrar did not initially see the letter because it was delivered to the county's clerk-recorder, whose office handles marriage licenses and property deeds rather than elections.

The letter was signed by Eric Grant, US attorney for the eastern district of California. A spokesperson for his office, Lauren Horwood, declined to comment on Denlay's statement, and a DHS spokesperson did not respond to an inquiry. Legal experts have said the threats appear designed to intimidate and that California officials acted lawfully in declining to comply.