WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 -- Los Angeles election workers were told in writing on Friday that counting certain ballots could make them accomplices to a federal crime, as the Justice Department turned a dispute over California's voter rolls into a threat of prosecution.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter made the warning in a letter to Los Angeles officials, according to ABC News, extending the DOJ California noncitizen ballots fight that began earlier this week with a thumb drive and a two-day deadline. "If persons knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens, they risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime," he wrote.

On Thursday the department sued, asking a federal court ...