Trump Says He Will Accept Midterm Results 'If They're Honest' as Justice Department Escalates Election Disputes

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he would respect the results of next week's midterm elections only if they were "honest," as his administration widened a legal fight over the role of state authorities who run the November 3 vote.

Asked by reporters whether he would accept the outcome even if his Republican Party lost control of Congress, Trump replied: "I will if they're honest elections."

The comments followed a Monday threat from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to take legal action against Washington state. The department demanded that the state remove about 400 people it says are not US citizens from its voter registration rolls. A letter gave the state until noon local time on Wednesday to respond or face what the DOJ called "emergency relief."

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs criticized the move. "The timing of this request, one week before the General Election, is no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results," he said in a statement. His office said it was reviewing the list but had already found that some entries relied on outdated information. In one case, he said, the DOJ cited a record from 1994 to label a person a noncitizen.

Hobbs also defended the state's system. "Washington elections are secure," he said, adding that voter fraud, including noncitizen voting, is incredibly rare and that every voter attests to their eligibility by signing the declaration on their ballot return envelope.

Last month, Washington successfully argued in court that it did not have to hand its full voter list to the DOJ. It was one of dozens of Democrat-led states that faced the same demand from the Trump administration and had courts side with them. Even so, the DOJ has kept pressing claims that large numbers of noncitizens are voting in Democratic-led states, a claim bipartisan voting rights groups have repeatedly dismissed.

Last week, the DOJ sued Alaska, saying it would seek to block certification of the state's Senate election if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan did not win. The department argued that local authorities were failing to run a fair election because another candidate also named Dan Sullivan was allowed on the ballot. The ballot lists Senator Sullivan with information showing he is the incumbent. The race is one of several that could help Democrats take the Senate from Trump's Republicans. On Friday, Trump said he had personally told the DOJ to file the suit.

Earlier this month, California said the DOJ sent a letter demanding it review a list of about 20,000 noncitizen voters. State authorities said a large share of those listed appeared to have been born in the US, which would make them eligible voters automatically.

The DOJ also plans to send a record number of election observers across the country on November 3, over the objections of local officials in several Democratic-led states, including New Jersey and California. Historically, the department has deployed observers to places with a record of civil rights violations and barriers keeping minorities or disenfranchised groups from the polls.