LOS ANGELES—In what he called “serious structural vulnerabilities” in the state’s election system, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, announced Friday, June 5, that his office in coordination with the FBI has launched multiple active election fraud investigations against the state for California. Both California and Washington state share the same core election system “structural” features.
“California’s election system has serious structural vulnerabilities. Universal vote-by-mail with no voter ID requirements creates conditions where fraud can go undetected and unpunished, eroding public confidence,” U.S. Attorney Essayli posted to X. “Without commenting on any specific investigation, my office has multiple election fraud investigations underway in coordination with FBI LA Office. We will follow the evidence wherever it leads and prosecute any violations of federal election law to the fullest extent.”
He added that his office is working closely with Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon to conduct the voter rolls audit. The state has resisted every effort to verify that only eligible U.S. citizens are registered to vote, he said.
Friday’s comments come just three weeks after Essayli’s office announced a plea agreement in a voter fraud case involving Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, 64, of Los Angeles County. Armstrong, a longtime petition circulator for ballot initiatives, agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of paying another person to register to vote.
According to the plea agreement, Armstrong periodically worked for nearly 20 years as a paid signature collector and paid individuals, including homeless people living in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles, to register to vote — supplying them with forms and using her own address on some registrations — to support her signature-gathering business. She faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.
Washington operates an identical universal vote-by-mail system as California and also lacks a voter-ID requirement—something critics like Rep. Jim Walsh have been attempting to address via legislation and ballot initiatives for years without any progress.
Like California, Washington does not require photo identification to cast a mail ballot—the method used by the overwhelming majority of voters in the United States. Instead, county elections offices verify identity through signature matching: the signature on the ballot return envelope is compared to the one on file from the voter’s registration record.
These parallels mean the vulnerabilities Essayli alleged for California—potential for undetected fraud due to mail ballots sent to every registrant and reliance on non-photo-ID verification—apply equally to Washington’s system.
Both states depend heavily on signature verification and voter-roll accuracy rather than documented proof of identity at the point of voting.
The Secretary of State’s Office maintains that safeguards such as signature review, ballot tracking, chain-of-custody protocols, and ongoing list maintenance keep fraud rates extremely low, and consistent with broader research on mail voting.
Washington also is currently facing scrutiny of its voter rolls similar to the “audit” Essayli referenced with California that Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon is leading.
On September 8, 2025, the Washington State Secretary of State’s Office received a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) requesting a full copy of the Washington state voter registration data within 14 days. At that time Washington Secretary of State Hobbs, and his office, assessed the request and ultimately decided they would not release the information until the DOJ specified what they plan to do with the data.
On September 21, 2025, the Washington Secretary of State’s Office responded to the DOJ’s request but only the publicly disclosable information permitted under state law, and not so-called “sensitive” (non-public) information including the registrant’s full date of birth, state driver’s license number or the last four digits of the registrant’s Social Security number.
The DOJ in December sued Washington state for not fulfilling its voter roll request. In April 2026 a federal judge cleared procedural hurdles allowing the case to move forward.
Author: Mario Lotmore
4 Responses
If time and time again it has been proven that voter fraud only accounts for .0008% of all votes cast in any state or federal election , can’t we just put this voter fraud thing that the Republican Party base keeps pushing and investigating and suing to bed for the final time, never to be brought up again ever!!!! Please!!! Also, think about this…an illegal immigrant would never vote and risk getting caught and shipped back to his country, it’s just too much to risk! Mail in ballots are just as good as using electronic signatures on closing documents for bank loans, mortgage purchases, or other transactions where you are legally signing a contractual agreement.
No because saying there is no fraud doesn’t mean there is no fraud. If there is no fraud why not release and clean up the voter rolls. Considering people die, move or change parties should trigger an audit on voter rolls especially with mail in voting period. Both states don’t require ID to vote. You can’t possibly so dense to think people that shouldn’t vote don’t. You lefty’s need to stop pretending you don’t cheat.
We have to show ID to register to vote and get are mail in ballot in Washington when you get your driver’s license or state ID you have to prove all of that
I live here, you DO NOT need to show proof of citizenship to get a drivers license, I never did. Only an enhanced drivers license BUT you can show a regular drivers license to vote as all you need to do is attest you are a citizen. AI can copy your signature exactly so system is setup to cheat. You have to show legitimate id for almost anything else so why not voting?