WA mall shooter, who is not U.S. citizen, has voted since 2014 … with DOJ’s blessings

WA mall shooter, who is not U.S. citizen, has voted since 2014 … with DOJ’s blessings

An election-integrity group accused the federal government of “an open-borders approach to voting” after learning that a noncitizen charged in a deadly mall shooting had cast several ballots since 2014.

Washington state records show Arcan Cetin was registered to vote in 2014 and participated in three election cycles, including the May presidential primary.

Though it is illegal for noncitizens to vote in the U.S., voter registration forms do not require proof of citizenship. The Department of Justice has repeatedly sued states that have tried to enforce the citizenship requirement. Florida and Colorado attempted to cross-reference their voter files against a federal immigration database, and both were sued by Obama administration lawyers. Federal courts backed the DOJ’s position.

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Arizona, Kansas, Alabama and Georgia tried to require proof of citizenship on federal voter registration forms. They, too, were slapped down.

“Every time it ended in a lawsuit and every time the requirement was removed by courts,” said Logan Churchwell, spokesman for the election-integrity group True the Vote.

This month, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., affirmed that the states’ verification efforts were illegal.

A 2015 petition to the U.S. Supreme Court argued — to no avail — for safeguards and authentication to prevent noncitizen voting.

Churchwell said the incidence of noncitizen voting is “impossible to quantify because it’s illegal to ask the question.” But he pointed to the nation’s broken immigration system for clues.

“The federal government is not going for border security or removal. We have an open-borders approach to voting,” he told Watchdog.org on Thursday.

True the Vote searched records in Cetin’s home county in Washington and found only one Arcan Cetin on the voter registration rolls matching his date of birth.

Unidentified Immigration and Customs Enforcement sources informed a news outlet of Cetin’s immigration status.

“It’s practically impossible for a citizen or a third party to do this kind of research without being tipped off,” Churchwell said.

Cetin, 20, has been charged with five counts of first-degree premeditated murder in connection with the deadly Sept. 24 rampage at Cascade Mall in Burlington, Wash.

Read more by Kenric Ward at Watchdog.com.

Kenric Ward

Kenric Ward

Kenric Ward is a national correspondent and writes for the Texas Bureau of Watchdog.org. Formerly a reporter and editor at two Pulitzer Prize-winning newspapers, Kenric has won dozens of state and national news awards for investigative articles. His most recent book is “Saints in Babylon: Mormons and Las Vegas.”

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