405 Non-Citizens Cast 1,500 Ballots in Washington, Federal Prosecutors Allege
October 27, 2026 · Frisian News
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Federal prosecutors say 405 non-citizens cast more than 1,500 ballots in Washington state elections. The state's own officials have acknowledged just 15 such cases in four decades.
Federal prosecutors say 405 people they believe are non-citizens voted in Washington state elections, casting more than 1,500 ballots across multiple contests, according to a press conference Monday by the U.S. Attorney's Offices for the Western and Eastern Districts of Washington.
Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd said investigators compared people already known to be non-citizens against voter registration and voting records assembled without the state's cooperation. The Department of Homeland Security supplied an initial list of names. Floyd's team then checked each one against Washington's publicly available voter data. "It's not that hard to go on to votewa.gov and type in their name and date of birth and figure out whether they're registered to vote," Floyd said, as reported by Seattle Red.
The 1,500 ballots span several decades. Some individuals on the list voted only once; others voted "several dozen times," Floyd told the Jason Rantz Show on Seattle Red 770 AM. He pointed to the 2004 governor's race, which Christine Gregoire won by 129 votes after two recounts.
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs has maintained for months that non-citizen voting in Washington is negligible. His office cited 15 confirmed cases between 1982 and 2025, which it described as 0.000006 percent of ballots cast over that period, according to Seattle Red. Hobbs disputed both the federal data's reliability and its timing. "The timing of this request, one week before the General Election, is no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results," Hobbs said, as reported by PNW Daily. His office also warned that the federal identification system can incorrectly flag U.S. citizens as non-citizens.
The gap between 15 state-confirmed cases and 405 federally identified names is not easily reconciled. Floyd told Seattle Red that Washington state law bars officials from collecting or asking about immigration status, leaving the state no independent method to identify ineligible voters. "How could they possibly identify someone that's not eligible to vote unless they accept our information?" he asked. Washington has also declined to hand over its full voter roll database, forcing federal investigators to check records one person at a time.
Many of those identified are lawful permanent residents, known as green card holders, who may live and work in the United States but cannot vote. Floyd traced several registrations to Washington's Motor Voter program, which registers residents to vote when they obtain a driver's license. Some told investigators they had no idea they were registered. "Somebody checked the wrong box intentionally, knowingly, unknowingly. Who knows?" Floyd said, as reported by Seattle Red. That ambiguity complicates prosecution: some claim they never filled out a ballot; others say they assumed receiving one in the mail meant they were eligible.
Floyd is focusing initial cases on suspects who should have known they were ineligible. Many were flagged through immigration applications that ask whether the applicant has ever voted in a U.S. election. He warned Monday that people who lied about citizenship on a registration or naturalization application could face felony charges carrying up to five years in federal prison, according to Seattle Red. Ballots for the November 3 midterm are already arriving. Once counted, Floyd said, there is no mechanism to retrieve them.
Floyd called his figure of 405 a floor, not a ceiling. His investigation so far has focused on green card holders, whose paperwork is traceable. People in the country without legal status have not yet been examined. "It didn't take long to identify 405," he told Seattle Red. "I'm confident in saying there are thousands of people that are voting that are not citizens."
Published October 27, 2026 · Frisian News