Key facts
- Federal agents threatened Butte County Clerk-Recorder Keaton Denlay with prosecution over alleged voter fraud.
- Denlay received a list of 47 alleged noncitizens, but found it inaccurate and incomplete.
- California law requires challengers to provide extraordinary proof of voter ineligibility, which Denlay said the DoJ failed to do.
- The DoJ demanded Denlay segregate ballots of individuals on the list.
- Denlay stated he would not be intimidated and would continue his job supporting Butte County voters.
A Butte County, California, elections official is speaking out against the Department of Justice's campaign against alleged voter fraud, stating federal agents threatened him with criminal prosecution over a list of "likely" noncitizens that he found to be inaccurate and disorganized. Keaton Denlay, the county clerk-recorder, said a federal agent hand-delivered a poorly formatted spreadsheet on Friday with 47 names, but the document contained numerous errors and lacked sufficient detail. Denlay declined to act on the demand to segregate ballots, citing California law that requires challengers to provide "extraordinary proof" of ineligibility. He stated the list did not meet this burden and that he would not be intimidated into compromising voter data. Other California county officials have reported similar experiences with the DoJ's demands, with some also finding the provided data unreliable. Legal experts suggest the DoJ's actions are empty threats intended to intimidate election officials.