Butte County clerk rejects DOJ demand to segregate 47 ballots over flawed data
Federal prosecutors handed a county official a disorganized spreadsheet with missing details, threatening criminal prosecution if he did not act within 48 hours.
By Amina Kaminski ·
Keaton Denlay, the clerk-recorder and registrar of voters for Butte County, declined to act on a federal demand to set aside ballots from 47 alleged noncitizens. He said the Department of Justice provided a document riddled with errors that failed to meet California’s legal standards for challenging voter eligibility.
On Friday at 3:30 p.m., a man identifying himself as a Department of Homeland Security agent delivered paperwork to Denlay’s office in the region north of Sacramento. The package included a letter from Eric Grant, the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of California, which misspelled Denlay’s name as "Danlay." The letter threatened that officials who knowingly tabulate ballots for noncitizens risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime.
Denlay stated that the attached two-page list was a poorly formatted printout of an Excel spreadsheet with missing and jumbled information. He found that the document listed 46 names, with one repeated twice, leaving only 45 distinct individuals. Of those, 32 were not on Butte County’s active voter rolls and had not been sent ballots.
The remaining names lacked sufficient data for cross-referencing. Seven entries were missing partial names, addresses, dates of birth, or social security numbers. Denlay wrote in a statement published on the county website that this left six names that might be ineligible. He argued that under state law, the challenger must establish extraordinary proof, a burden he said the Justice Department did not meet.
The federal letter gave county registrars 48 hours to respond and asked for additional information, such as social security numbers, for individuals whose citizenship could not be independently confirmed. Denlay said he personally reviewed the records to keep his staff focused on the election and noted he never received a digital copy of the spreadsheet.
This incident is part of a wider Justice Department effort targeting California during the final weeks of the midterm elections. Federal officials claim 20,000 voters in the state are likely noncitizens and have sued to stop those ballots from being counted. State officials have rejected these claims, citing unreliable data and a lack of federal authority to interfere with state elections.
Other county officials have reported similar experiences. Francisco Diaz, the registrar of voters for San Benito County, said his office received a list of 33 names, some of whom were not registered. He stated that his office would not be intimidated by federal agents. Legal experts have described the federal threats as attempts to intimidate officials while California leaders follow the law.
