The Justice Department on Tuesday sent letters to top election officials nationwide threatening them with criminal prosecution if noncitizens cast ballots that are counted in elections, according to one of the letters sent to a state and reviewed by MS NOW.

The letters, sent to all 50 states, demand that election officials show how they are complying with federal law on voter eligibility. They were sent by Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general who leads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

“Any election officer, including the chief election officer of the state, who knowingly retains noncitizens on the state’s [voter list] or facilitates noncitizens in receiving and casting ballots could be subject to criminal liability,” Dhillon wrote in the letter.

Those who “fail to carry out their duties,” she wrote, face “potential criminal penalties.”

The warning comes as the Trump administration has made what it describes as election integrity a central priority, arguing that stronger enforcement is necessary to bolster public confidence in elections. Election officials and voting rights advocates, however, have long maintained that instances of noncitizen voting are exceedingly rare and warn that heightened enforcement efforts could discourage eligible voters from participating.

Dhillon asked election officials to respond “within five days” and include details on how their state “intends to ensure it is complying with these federal laws both at the state and local level and how the Department can assist in those efforts.”

It is unclear which states will respond or what DOJ’s response will be to those who do not.

“The Department sent these letters to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, asking for voluntary compliance in a timely manner with their obligations under federal law to ensure only citizens vote in federal elections,” a DOJ spokesperson said in a statement to MS NOW.

The DOJ’s warning is expected to intensify tensions between the federal government and state election officials, who largely oversee voter registration and election administration under state law. Many states already require prospective voters to affirm that they are U.S. citizens when registering to vote, under penalty of perjury.

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Ebony Davis

Ebony Davis is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked at CNN as a campaign reporter covering elections and politics.