Feds Say 405 Noncitizens Cast 1,500+ Ballots in Washington State

Federal prosecutors say 405 noncitizens are registered to vote in Washington state and have cast more than 1,500 ballots, and they want the state to set aside any ballots those people return in next week’s midterms, according to KOMO News and FOX 13 Seattle.

Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd of the Western District of Washington laid out the findings at a Monday briefing at the federal courthouse in Seattle, FOX 13 Seattle reported. Officials claimed the 400-plus people they identified cast 1,500 ballots illegally, FOX 13 Seattle reported.

JUST IN: DOJ has flagged more than 400 suspected noncitizens on Washington’s voter rolls.

“We have identified over 400 non-citizens who are registered to vote and have voted in multiple elections. This is only the tip of the iceberg,” acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd said in a…

— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) October 27, 2026

A Letter to Secretary of State Hobbs

Floyd and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Pete Serrano of the Eastern District of Washington sent a letter to Secretary of State Steve Hobbs asking the state to take immediate action to sequester any ballots from the people identified in the investigation, KOMO News reported.

“With the highest level of confidence I have, these are people that are registered to vote, have voted, and are not citizens,” Floyd said, as quoted by KOMO News. He told the station that agents have been questioning noncitizen detainees and people crossing into Washington about whether they voted, then checking that against federal immigration databases and public voter records. “With the small sample we have collected so far, I am confident that we are looking at thousands of noncitizens who have been voting in Washington,” Floyd said, according to KOMO News.

Floyd said it is too early to tell whether anyone on the list will face criminal charges, KOMO News reported. Making false statements in a naturalization application and fraudulently registering to vote are federal crimes, the station noted.

Floyd also argued the current setup makes enforcement nearly impossible. “The system we have right now is set up to make this extremely difficult, if not impossible, for there to be any enforcement of illegal voting in Washington,” he said, according to KOMO News.

Hobbs Pushes Back

Hobbs, a Democrat, said his office is “carefully reviewing the request” and “will only respond to requests that follow due process,” according to a statement from the Washington Secretary of State’s office. The statement said the timing, one week before the election, “is no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results,” and noted that one of the roughly 400 records dates back to 1994.

“A lot of them, or some of them, actually have citizenship, so I don’t know where they are getting their names from,” Hobbs told KOMO News. Hobbs’ office has said the state recorded just 15 cases of noncitizen voting between 1982 and 2025, FOX 13 Seattle reported.

The Secretary of State’s statement also said the Justice Department “lost their fight in court for Washington’s complete voter rolls last month,” and argued the system the department uses “frequently flags legitimate U.S. citizens as noncitizens.”

For Floyd, the issue is timing. Even if he proved those 405 people voted illegally, “those votes were counted. Once they’re counted, you can’t un-ring that bell,” he said, according to KOMO News.

Sources

• KOMO News
• FOX 13 Seattle
• Washington Secretary of State

Reporting by Daily Beltway.