Federal officials identify 400 noncitizens registered to vote in Washington state

🗞️ Story file #1004

Federal officials identify 400 noncitizens registered to vote in Washington state

Oct 27, 6 AM ET to Oct 30, 6 AM ET · 2 outlets not rated for lean

23outlets carried it
🫏8 · 4 · 9🐘left · center · right
3 dayson the front pages
17front pages at once, at its peak
15 minof TV captions
5radio newscasts
20people retold it online

📰 read it at: HuffPost The Guardian ABC News CBS News PBS NewsHour The Independent The Washington Post Yahoo News Reuters Scripps News Straight Arrow News The Hill Just the News The Epoch Times The Washington Times New York Post Newsmax OAN PJ Media The Post Millennial The Western Journal Talking Points Memo The Washington Sun

👣 How this story traveled: from the front pages that broke it, out through TV, radio and the shows, into what people retold and what fact-checkers examined, and on into the saga it is part of. Everything here is matched to the story by our tools, so a link can be wrong; the trackers' pages say how each is made.

Oct 27, 6 AM ETfirst on a front page: The Epoch Times
Oct 27, 8 AM ETfirst on TV: CNN
Oct 27, 8 AM ETfirst on the radio: ABC News Update
Oct 28, 4 AM ETpeak: on 17 front pages
Oct 30, 4 AM ETretold online by 20 people

the front pages that ran it, hour by hour

Front pages carrying it at each hourly run, Oct 27, 6 AM to Oct 30, 6 AM ET (peak 17), by the outlets' lean: left · center · right · not rated

Who carried it and when: each outlet in the order it picked the story up, a bar for each headline from when we first saw it on the front page to when we last did, in the outlet's lean color (dashed: not rated); a dot marks a new headline, and a headline swapped for a new one between our hourly looks runs on to it. A gap means a look found the story gone from that front page. Beneath, its captions on TV, the radio newscasts that carried it (bigger: the lead) and when people were found retelling it. Hover for details.

💬 Quoted

“Tip of the iceberg”1
“Noncitizen”1

phrases its headlines put in quotation marks; the bar is how many outlets did

🗣️ Only one side says

🫏 left
trump administration
administration asks
aside ballots

🐘 right
nothing of its own

phrases three or more outlets on one side used and none on the other

📌 Linked by aggregators

1 Google News

aggregators linking to it from their front page (they don't count as outlets covering it)

✏️ 9 outlets ran more than one headline on it (reworded, or a follow-up)

CBS News (2 wordings): “DOJ asks Washington to set aside ballots from 400 alleged noncitizens” → “U.S. citizens included on DOJ list of 400 alleged noncitizens, Washington says”
Just the News (2 wordings): “Justice Department uncovers hundreds of Washington registered voters it believes may be noncitizens” → “400 suspected noncitizen voters in Washington state just tip of the iceberg, GOP chair says”
Newsmax (2 wordings): “DOJ Targets 400 Suspected Noncitizen Voters in Wash.” → “400 Suspected Noncitizen Voters Targeted in Washington”
PJ Media (2 wordings): “Washington State Stonewalls Feds Investigating 400 Noncitizen Voters” → “Washington State Stonewalls Feds Over 400 Noncitizen Voters”
Talking Points Memo (2 wordings): “DOJ Tells Washington State To Set Aside Ballots of 400 Voters It Claims are Noncitizens” → “Washington State Finds Citizens on DOJ’s Purported List of Noncitizen Voters”
The Epoch Times (2 wordings): “DOJ Flags More Than 400 Suspected Noncitizens on Washington Voter Rolls” → “Federal Officials Identify More than 400 Potentially Ineligible Voters in Washington State”
The Washington Post (2 wordings): “Trump administration asks Washington state to hold more than 400 people’s ballots” → “Trump administration asks Washington state to hold more than 400 people’s ballots - The Washington Post”
The Washington Sun (2 wordings): “Trump Administration Asks Washington State to Set Aside Ballots From 400 Voters” → “Trump Administration Asks Washington to Set Aside Ballots”
The Washington Times (2 wordings): “Federal prosecutors ask Washington state to block 400 ballots of suspected noncitizens” → “Washington Times' review of hundreds of cases shows how noncitizens end up on voter rolls”

📰 Every outlet's headline 23left to right by AllSides rating

HuffPost🕒 Oct 24, 8 PM ET California Election Officials Frustrated, Rattled By DOJ Demand To Sequester ‘Noncitizen’ Ballots
The Guardian🕒 Oct 26, 10 PM ET Trump administration asks Washington to set aside hundreds of ballots from suspected noncitizen voters
ABC News🕒 Oct 27, 2 PM ET Trump admin demands Washington set aside 400 ballots it says are from noncitizens
CBS News🕒 Oct 27, 12 PM ET DOJ asks Washington to set aside ballots from 400 alleged noncitizens
PBS NewsHour🕒 Oct 26, 6 PM ET Trump administration asks Washington state to set aside ballots from 400 voters it says may be noncitizens
The Independent🕒 Oct 27, 8 AM ET Trump administration targets hundreds of Washington voters as state questions timing of election intervention
The Washington Post🕒 Oct 27, 9 AM ET Trump administration asks Washington state to hold more than 400 people’s ballots
Yahoo News🕒 Oct 24, 4 PM ET DOJ tells California counties to set aside ballots from suspected noncitizens. Here’s what to know.
Reuters🕒 Oct 27, 12 PM ET US Justice Dept asks Washington state not to count ballots from possible noncitizens
Scripps News🕒 Oct 25, 10 AM ET DOJ orders California counties to set aside ballots from suspected noncitizens
Straight Arrow News🕒 Oct 24, 1 PM ET DOJ orders California county registrars to sequester alleged noncitizen ballots
The Hill🕒 Oct 27, 1 PM ET Trump administration: Hundreds of Washington state voters may be noncitizens
Just the News🕒 Oct 27, 9 AM ET Justice Department uncovers hundreds of Washington registered voters it believes may be noncitizens
The Epoch Times🕒 Oct 27, 6 AM ET DOJ Flags More Than 400 Suspected Noncitizens on Washington Voter Rolls
The Washington Times🕒 Oct 26, 10 PM ET Federal prosecutors ask Washington state to block 400 ballots of suspected noncitizens
New York Post🕒 Oct 28, 4 AM ET Federal officials identify 400 noncitizens registered to vote in Washington state: ‘Tip of the iceberg’
Newsmax🕒 Oct 26, 8 PM ET DOJ Targets 400 Suspected Noncitizen Voters in Wash.
OAN🕒 Oct 29, 5 PM ET DOJ suspects 400 people illegally registered to vote in Wash. state
PJ Media🕒 Oct 27, 7 PM ET Washington State Stonewalls Feds Investigating 400 Noncitizen Voters
The Post Millennial🕒 Oct 26, 7 PM ET BREAKING: DOJ says 405 non-citizens cast over 1,500 ballots in WA, warns thousands more may be voting illegally
The Western Journal🕒 Oct 29, 2 PM ET Days Before Midterm Election, DOJ Flags 400 Noncitizen Voters in Washington, GOP Chair Says Dems Have a Problem
Talking Points Memo🕒 Oct 27, 9 AM ET DOJ Tells Washington State To Set Aside Ballots of 400 Voters It Claims are Noncitizens
The Washington Sun🕒 Oct 27, 12 AM ET Trump Administration Asks Washington State to Set Aside Ballots From 400 Voters

TV, radio, and the shows that talked about it

left
leans left
right

minutes its captions were on screen, by channel; the disc is the network's lean

hourly newscasts that carried it, by show; beside the count, how often it was the lead story, or the highest it came in the running order

podcasts, newsletters and streams that talked about it, by show; the bar is episodes; the disc is the show's lean by reputation

🐘 Ben Shapiro 1

🕵️ investigative reporting on it and 🃏 satire joking about it (jokes, never counted as coverage); the bar is pieces

🃏 McSweeney's 1

what people online made of it

🧩 How it's being told

The stories under this news, from our motif index, and who told each: the shows we follow by their lean, people online, fact-checkers. A story people tell, not a claim that it's true; claims are matched to this story by our tools, so a link can be wrong.

🧩 News of the weird 🧶 online
“The Pope is a registered voter in Illinois and requested a mail-in ballot for the midterm elections.”
🧩 Solution in search of a problem 🧶 online
↔️ its answer: Voter fraud
“The Trump administration is asking Washington state to set aside ballots from suspected noncitizen voters.”
🧩 Voter fraud 🧶 online
↔️ its answer: Voter suppression, Solution in search of a problem
“Donald Trump is offering a $1 million reward for reports of voter fraud that lead to convictions.”
🧩 Voter suppression 🧶 online
↔️ its answer: Voter fraud
“The Trump administration is asking Washington state to set aside ballots from suspected noncitizen voters.”

🧶 Retold online

The Pope is a registered voter in Illinois and requested a mail-in ballot for the midterm elections. Oct 30: told by 20 people (same issue); told before on Nov 2, Nov 1
🦋 Widely seen on Bluesky

🦋 a post on Bluesky · 63 likes, 10 reposts
🦋 a post on Bluesky · 19 likes, 3 reposts

On Folklore: the latest in full, with their motifs and who is telling them.

🗣️ Names in it

WashingtonTrump administrationJustice DepartmentWashington state

what the fact-checkers looked into

🧐 No fact-checker has taken it on yet.

the running story it belongs to

🌱 A story of its own so far: no saga yet.