Miss. Official: DOJ Pushes for Illegals, Felons to Vote

Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson claimed the Justice Department is using the U.S. Marshals Service and jails to encourage illegal immigrants and imprisoned felons to register to vote.

Watson, a Republican, sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland last week, asking him to stop enforcing Biden Executive Order 14019, which was promoted as an attempt to combat racial discrimination and instructed government agencies to "consider ways to expand citizens' opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process."

According to Watson's letter, the Department of Justice's efforts to comply with the executive order "have led to agencies under [Garland's] charge attempting to register people to vote, including potentially ineligible felons." Watson also charges that the order has led the DOJ to "coopt state and local officials into accomplishing this goal."

Watson expressed concern that the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) is modifying existing agreements with prisons to "provide voter registration materials and facilitate voting by mail" to comply with Biden's order.

"According to the Marshals Service, they are modifying 936 contracts or intergovernmental agreements to require state and local government complicity in the potential registration of ineligible prisoners to vote," the letter states. "It further requires the Department of Justice to facilitate voter registration and mail voting for individuals in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons.

"This program creates numerous opportunities for ineligible prisoners to be registered to vote in Mississippi."

Watson raised alarm at how Mississippi jails are being pushed to "work with other reliable sources of voter information to assist federal prisoners with voter registration, voting by mail, and notification of upcoming elections."

"We are unaware of any contact with our Office, which begs the question, which organizations are the Marshals using to accomplish this demand?" the letter reads.

"Many outside groups performing voter registration and vote harvesting services are partisan entities with a history of being unreliable. There have been documented instances of these groups providing incorrect directions to voters. It is not proper for the Federal government to push partisan groups into the voting process in Mississippi or any other state."

Watson also noted that "everyone in the Marshals' custody" is provided with a form notifying them of the right to register and vote in U.S. elections and said it could lead to ineligible noncitizens voting.

"It is quite shocking, in the midst of a crisis at our southern border and an unprecedented crime wave, that the Biden administration has chosen to expend tax dollars and vital law enforcement resources on a program that risks bloating state voter rolls with ineligible and non-citizen voters," Watson wrote.

He requested that Garland cease enforcement "unless and until we can ensure only eligible voters receive voter registration information" and asked him to provide details about the procedures "so my office can evaluate what damage may have been done to the integrity of Mississippi voter rolls."

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