Maybe Is Not A Voter Category

The Justice Department has brought Washington state a list of 405 people, a request to set aside ballots they might cast, and a qualification large enough to deserve its own ballot envelope: some may have become citizens since registering.

That last part is in the department’s own account, according to the Associated Press. Apparently the paperwork has not ruled out the possibility that time continued passing.

Monday’s request concerns people the department suspects registered without U.S. citizenship. It is not a finding that 405 people voted illegally, nor evidence that 405 ballots are sitting somewhere waiting to be confiscated. Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said he was reviewing the request.

These distinctions are less exciting than a press conference, which is presumably why press conferences do not come with a mandatory definitions quiz.

Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd called the list “the tip of the iceberg.” He also said proving illegal voting would be difficult without state records the department wants. An iceberg is an ambitious illustration for an investigation still requesting the water.

There is a legitimate job here: establish whether particular people were eligible when they registered or voted. That takes records, dates and evidence. It cannot be completed by putting a large number next to a small adjective and hoping everyone forgets the adjective was “suspected.”

AP reports that Washington has more than five million registered voters. Hobbs’s office noted that one person on the list last voted in 1994. That does not settle the person’s eligibility. It does make this a remarkably leisurely emergency to unveil a week before the election.

The department’s previous suspicion lists also provide a useful reason to keep the pencil handy. AP reports that an allegation involving 1,500 potential noncitizen voters in Nevada produced zero after investigation. In Arizona’s Maricopa County, a list of 207 possible noncitizens was reduced to eight by the Republican county attorney. Investigation changed the numbers. That is what investigation is for.

Washington’s list still needs scrutiny, not a predetermined verdict in either direction. But asking a state to sideline possible ballots before resolving current eligibility reverses the sensible order: first the administrative consequence, then the answer.

If the evidence establishes a violation, deal with the violation. Until then, “maybe” belongs in the investigator’s notes. It is not a new category of American whose ballot goes in the waiting room.