President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice — in a seven-page letter to Republican Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson last week threatening “criminal penalties” — said it would like to “assist” Utah “in complying” with federal election laws barring noncitizens from casting a ballot.
Utah said federal officials can best help it run elections by respecting the state’s constitutional right to do so without obstruction.
“The State of Utah complies with both state and federal election law,” state Election Director Ryan Cowley wrote in a response Tuesday. “The federal government can best assist the State of Utah by allowing us to perform our required duties without unjustified interference, as intended by Article I, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution.”
The letter came as Utah fights a lawsuit filed by the administration seeking to compel it to hand over the state’s entire, unredacted voter database — a demand Henderson argues has no legal basis and violates Utah law.
Read the full article by Emily Anderson Stern at sltrib.com.
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.