WA leaders address election security amid DOJ non-citizen voting claims

Thank you Adam. State and local leaders will address election security and how you can still confidently cast your ballot later today. It comes as the Department of Justice has claimed hundreds of ballots were cast by non-citizens in our state. Fox 13's Sean Chitnis live this morning from the King County election headquarters in Renton with more on the back and forth between state and federal leaders. Good morning Sean. Maria, good morning. And we're told that here at election headquarters for King County, that process of going through those ballots, it's in full swing. That's coming, as we know, across our state. More than a million ballots have been returned and accepted. But this week began with that back and forth. And we heard from the Department of Justice when they made those serious accusations about non-citizens illegally voting here in Washington. They asked for ballots from more than 400 voters to be set aside and claimed that those non citizens cast around 1500 ballots in multiple elections. But state leaders say that kind of voter fraud is extremely rare. And the Secretary of State spoke to that issue earlier this week here on Good Day Seattle. We're willing to work with our federal partners to help with easing fraud. But right now, they have been rather aggressive and adversarial. They have pulled back on support for our office in terms of cybersecurity and support from Homeland Security. And they have hyper concentrated on this particular issue that doesn't really get a lot of bang for the buck. Now, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs went on to say that states have a constitutional right to run elections the way they see fit. And past attempts by the DOJ to sue Washington, including over voter data, have lost. But federal prosecutors say they're doing what's required by the law. For those who continue to claim that there is no evidence of widespread fraud in Washington, here is my response. It is not my job to uncover widespread voter fraud. It is my job to investigate and prosecute those who commit federal crimes in the Western District of Washington. Now election leaders in our state are recommending anyone who has still not turned in their ballot to take it to a drop off box to make sure that your votes get counted. We see one here. We are also going to hear again from the Secretary of State and leaders for King County elections later today to talk about election security. And that's going to be happening here in the afternoon. Live in Renton, Sean Chitnis, Fox 13 News.