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By Guy Page
The U.S. Department of Justice is warning state election officials that they could face criminal liability if they knowingly allow noncitizens to remain on voter registration rolls or facilitate voting by individuals who are not eligible to vote in federal elections.
In a July 7 letter to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who heads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, reminded state officials of their obligations under federal election laws, including the National Voter Registration Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Help America Vote Act and the Civil Rights Act.
According to media reports, state-specific versions of the Michigan letter were sent to every state – including Vermont. State law allows non-citizen voting in Winooski, Burlington and Montpelier municipal elections and budget votes. The Legislature overrode Gov. Scott’s veto of some of those bills. The Vermont Supreme Court upheld a Republican-led challenge to non-citizen voting.
While Vermont allows citizen voting only in local elections. The letter from Dillon does not address local voting, and only warns about non-citizen voting in federal elections.
The three-page letter states that election officials have a legal duty to maintain accurate voter registration lists and ensure that only eligible U.S. citizens cast ballots in federal elections. It also outlines criminal statutes that could apply to election officials who knowingly permit ineligible voters to register or vote.
According to the Justice Department, knowingly retaining noncitizens on a state’s voter registration list, sending them ballots and counting those ballots could violate Section 12 of the National Voter Registration Act, which prohibits election officials from knowingly depriving residents of a fair and impartially conducted election.
The letter also cites federal laws making it a crime for noncitizens to falsely claim U.S. citizenship to register or vote, falsely represent themselves as U.S. citizens, or vote in federal elections. The department notes that election officials who knowingly assist or facilitate such violations could face prosecution under federal aiding-and-abetting statutes or conspiracy laws.
The Justice Department requested that Michigan respond within five days explaining what steps it is taking to comply with federal law and maintain accurate voter rolls. The letter offers assistance from the Civil Rights Division in reviewing the state’s procedures.
The correspondence was signed by Dhillon and copied to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Attached to the letter was a memorandum outlining federal legal requirements for state and local election officials and potential criminal penalties for violations.
The Justice Department did not allege that Michigan election officials have committed any crime or that noncitizens have voted in sufficient numbers to affect election outcomes. Rather, the letter serves as a notice of federal legal requirements and warns of potential consequences if election officials knowingly fail to comply with those obligations.
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Categories: Elections, State Government
Thank you DOJ! I feel heard!
Ms. Harmeet is on fire again! <3
Our Secretary of State just doesn’t care……
I approve. Bring it in.
“KNOWINGLY”. That is the catch. The VT Secretary of State is hiding behind state statues that actually prohibit verifying citizenship status using various federal databases. Creation of that protection by the legislature was absolutely intentional.
Sarah Copeland-Hanzas was instrumental in passing this legislation during her time on the house government operations committee where she also served as chair.
THANK YOU JEFF!
Why is it that Vermont State Elected Officials can choose to ignore U.S. Federal Election Laws and Immigration Laws? Our U.S. and State Constitutions both require Voters to be U.S. Citizens and 18 Years of Age.
Making sure Voters are U.S. Citizens should be an open and transparent matter for ALL.
Article 6 of the Vermont Constitution says, Vermont Elected Officials are supposed to be our Trustees and Servants, and they are legally accountable to, “We The People of Vermont.”
PLEASE SPEAK UP AND MAKE THEM ACCOUNTABLE!
Thank you Jeff!
Why is it that our Vermont State Elected Officials choose to flagrantly ignore U.S. Federal Election Laws and Immigfafion Laws?
Why are they opposed to following our U.S. and Vermont State Constitutions in meeting the requirements of U.S. Citizenship and attaining the age of 18 Years to be able to Vote?
Where is the transparency? Where is the accountability? ALL Vermont Elected Officials are legally accountable to “We The People of Vermont as our Trustees and Servants,” in accordance with Article 6 of the Vermont Constitution.
Speak Out with your Votes in the upcoming 2026 Elections! We need Law-abiding Government Officials.
Charity Clark can sue them for poor grammar or something I expect…
The catch I believe is “Federal Elections” cities and towns that allow non-citizens to vote in local elections may “accidentally” 😉 put them on federal lists, and with a no questions asked policy they slip through the cracks. Maybe I’m off here but I’m sure someone will let me know if I am.
Like I said…we are watching every move you make.
I’m glad the DOJ put the Vermont Secretary of State on notice about complying with the law. However, I think this issue is somewhat of a side show and distraction from bigger issues. The bigger issues are
1) Electronic Tabulators
The State does not allow parties to fully inspect them. We are told we have to just trust whoever created the hardware and software.
a) All makes and models have recently been found to contain Chinese made chip sets with cell phone connectivity built in. That is in addition to the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth capabilities that were obviously built in.
b) State law does not allow hand recounts in precincts that use electronic tabulators. Any re-counts must be done by the same electronic tabulators. This law makes absolutely no sense, and could only have been put in place by people who want to cheat. For example, what if there was a printer error, and half the ballots were printed in such a way that they are miss-read by the machine, but the voter obviously chose a different candidate on the paper? This sort of thing can not be tested for in advance because there are simply too many possibilities of what might change slightly in the future. More than one case of this happening was caught and has been reported nationwide.
2) Universal Mailed ballots.
Not all states have universal mailed ballots, but all states that do have gone purely pro-progressive since being implemented. There are so many security problems with universal mailed ballots. Here are a couple:
a) In the 2024 election, more than 10,000 ballots were flagged as un-deliverable statewide. This means the voter lists had bad data in them. Also, what happened to all of those live ballots?
b) All of the ballots mailed in Vermont (from in state or out of state) will be routed through the Hartford, Connecticut, processing plant. There are also contractor run facilities that can pop up at any time where the mail (and cast ballots) get routed through. It would not be a difficult thing to set up an automated sorting location where those cast ballots can be “corrected” and re-inserted back into the mail stream before reaching the town clerks. If it were just a few absentee ballots, it wouldn’t be worthwhile for a saboteur to spend the time setting something like this up. But with universal mailed ballots, it would be well worth investing a few million dollars in a rogue facility to do this sort of thing and change the results. There is evidence that this has happened, including at least one lawsuit (PA), but the USPS is apparently untouchable, and the information is gagged and censored.