‘Now they want to TAKE MY RIGHT TO VOTE AWAY’
Page B46From§Eachthe evening edition — 28 October 2026
DOJ's noncitizen-voter dragnet produces its first charges: the two men who faked being noncitizen voters.
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As it ran on the front
The Justice Department wants six announcements this month read as momentum, so start where they do. On September 30, ten people were indicted in Minnesota for voting while noncitizens — the sixth such announcement of the month, with Attorney General Todd Blanche and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin signing onto the release. Five days later, on October 5, the Washington Examiner counted sixteen more charges, ten of them again in Minnesota, the same state getting a second round inside a week. On October 17 the department wrote to California, warning election officials that counting a ballot from a suspected noncitizen risked prosecution. Two days after that, twenty-eight people were charged across the state under an operation the department named Protect the Vote.
That's the operation as the department describes it. Here is what it actually caught, six days before the vote.…
…(cont) On October 28, the department's two most prominent Minnesota defendants turned out to be James O'Keefe and Cam Higby, charged with — I want to say exposing a security loophole, that's the line the Daily Caller ran — no. Charged with unlawfully voting. They wore costumes and used the names of registered state voters to start the "vouching" process in the August 11 primary. That is the exact fraud six announcements promised to find, and when the department finally found it, it was wearing a disguise and writing election-security commentary under its own byline.
The other catch is quieter. A federal agent hand-delivered Butte County clerk-recorder Keaton Denlay a list of forty-seven people the department called "likely" noncitizens unlawfully registered — a document Denlay says arrived as a poorly formatted Excel spreadsheet with missing and jumbled information. He declined to set the ballots aside. He is now the official facing a threat of criminal prosecution if he didn't take action, full stop, over a list the department's own agents could not format correctly.
Six announcements, one judge, one clerk, and two defendants who work for the side that ordered the search. That's the record, filed under the department's own name, six days before anyone votes.
“They spent six weeks announcing busloads of "noncitizen" voters, and their best catch, six days out, is two right-wing operatives in Halloween costumes and a county clerk who read their own spreadsheet better than they did. That's a metal detector going off on the guy who built it, not an investigation. Six days to the vote, and the only people this dragnet actually stopped are the ones trying to help it.”
“Look, the Justice Department is just closing loopholes here — six announcements, that's diligence, not persecution. And if two of the people it caught happen to be our own election-integrity guys, well, that just proves the system doesn't play favorites, it catches fraud wherever it finds it, which means it found it on — wait, it found our own side committing the fraud. That's not the talking point. Forget I said that.”
Earlier in this story
- Judge Trump wanted impeached takes over fight to unseal warrant in zero-charge Omar probe, six days before vote. By Mitch · the evening edition, 28 October 2026
- Judge discusses 'serious consequences' for Omar probe that has filed zero charges, six days before vote. By Mitch · the afternoon edition, 28 October 2026
- Justice Department sues to block Alaska's certification only if the Republican loses; the election is ten days away. By Lou · the evening edition, 24 October 2026
- Justice Department vows not to improperly block any election, tries to block three this month. By Lou · the morning edition, 24 October 2026
- Justice Department demands verification for ballots it is also asking a federal court to stop counting. By Lou · the evening edition, 24 October 2026
- Justice Department vows it won't improperly block election certification, sues to block election certification By Lou · the afternoon edition, 23 October 2026
The receipts
A federal judge in California ruled late Wednesday that the US Department of Homeland Security has violated the Voting Rights Act by sending agents door-to-door and demanding information from people about their immigration status and whether they've voted in recent elections—part of President Donald Trump's perennial effort to prove the…
Mary Moriarty said O’Keefe, 42, of West Palm Beach, Florida, and Higby, 26, of Covington, Washington, wore costumes and used the names of registered state voters while starting the “vouching” process in the Aug. 11 primary.
Keaton Denlay says agents handed him ‘poorly formatted Excel spreadsheet’ and threatened to criminally prosecute him A California county elections official is speaking out about the Department of Justice’s campaign against purported “voter fraud”, saying federal officials provided him a disorganized list of names filled with inaccuracies…
· Trump DoJ indicts 10 individuals on noncitizen voting related charges in Minnesota from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
· Trump administration threatens California officials if noncitizens vote in midterms from the morgue, 17 Oct 2026
· Federal voter fraud arrests intensify in California days after DOJ warning from the morgue, 19 Oct 2026
· DOJ charges 16 illegal immigrants with voting crimes, including 10 in Minnesota from the morgue, 5 Oct 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.