Federal prosecutors say they've found 405 noncitizens in Washington State who are registered to vote and have actually voted. Some of them did it over and over. Together they cast more than 1,500 illegal ballots.
One of the voter records dates back to 1994. According to a federal letter to the state, some of these people have been voting for two decades, a couple dozen times each.
Just four days before that announcement, Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat, went on a state public affairs show to reassure voters. He said there had been 15 cases of noncitizens voting in Washington from 1982 to 2025.
So the state counted 15 cases in 43 years. Federal investigators found 405 people in one pass.
Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd made the announcement Monday in Seattle, alongside Pete Serrano, the top federal prosecutor in Eastern Washington.
"For years, Washington state has had a mantra: Our elections are 'free, fair, and devoid of fraud,'" Floyd said. "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."
Floyd says the real number is likely in the thousands. His office found these 405 by taking a Homeland Security list of green card holders and other noncitizens and checking the names against Washington's voter records, one at a time, using only what the public can see.
They had to do it that way because Hobbs wouldn't give them anything better.
Earlier this year, the Justice Department asked Hobbs for the state's full voter file. He offered names, addresses, birth years, and voting histories. He refused to hand over dates of birth and the identifying numbers investigators need to check voters against citizenship records quickly and accurately. When the DOJ sued, Hobbs fought it in court, and a federal judge in Seattle threw the case out in September.
Floyd said Washington "does not have the capacity or the will" to check whether noncitizens are voting.
Hobbs, for his part, says there are "probably a few non-citizens that are on the voter rolls." He added, "That in itself is not illegal."
Some of those noncitizens have told federal investigators how they got there. They say Washington's Motor Voter program signed them up to vote without their knowledge when they got a driver's license. Democrats passed that system in 2018, pushing it through the state House by a 50-48 vote, and Democratic Governor Jay Inslee signed it. The state put these people on the rolls and then mailed them ballots.
Now the feds are asking Washington to clean up the mess before Election Day. Floyd's office sent Hobbs the list of more than 400 names. The office asked the state to check them against citizenship records within 24 hours and to set aside any ballots those people cast until their citizenship can be verified.
Hobbs's office says it's "reviewing" the list. Hobbs used his statement to go after the request.
"The timing of this request – one week before the General Election – is no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results," Hobbs said. He added that his office "will only respond to requests that follow due process," and said, "We saw what happened in California and don't want Washingtonians to be harassed."
That's three concerns from Hobbs: the timing, the paperwork, and Washingtonians getting harassed. He didn't mention the 1,500 illegal ballots.
Voting as a noncitizen is a felony in Washington, punishable by prison time, fines, and deportation. Floyd says his office will keep identifying illegal voters. He wants to look at double voting and ballots returned in the names of dead people next.
Washington votes on November 3. As of now, Hobbs hasn't said he will set aside a single one of those ballots.