DOJ Gives California 48 Hours to Review Alleged Noncitizen Voter List — Threatens Emergency Legal Action
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice has threatened California with emergency legal action over what it claims are noncitizens on the state's voter rolls who were sent mail ballots for the November 3 midterm elections — and gave the state just 48 hours to act.
In letters sent Tuesday by acting deputy U.S. attorney general R. Trent McCotter, the department demanded that California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder review a list of suspected noncitizen voters delivered on a password-protected thumb drive, according to reporting by the Associated Press and Reuters.
The letters instruct election officials to withhold ballots from anyone on the list whose citizenship cannot be independently verified, and to segregate mail-in ballots already returned by those voters until their status is confirmed. "If you cannot implement this process by then, given the ongoing federal election, the United States will have no choice but to seek emergency relief," the letter states.
A Justice Department spokesperson told Fox News that "thousands of potential foreign nationals ineligible to vote have been identified on California's voter rolls statewide," while a separate spokesperson, Kiersten Pels, told Reuters the department would take "all necessary legal action to protect election integrity and ensure compliance with federal law."
McCotter's letter framed the stakes bluntly: "Allowing noncitizens to vote cancels citizen votes." The department says the push is part of a broader hunt for noncitizen voting this year, though AP reporting notes the department has charged only about 90 people for various election-related misconduct this year, including roughly 50 alleged to have voted as noncitizens, out of 227 million registered voters in 2024.
California mails ballots to all registered voters.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta pushed back hard at a Wednesday news conference, accusing the Trump administration of intimidating voters and promoting false claims of widespread voter fraud.
"There is no widespread voter fraud problem. It doesn't exist. It is a lie. It is a conspiracy theory," Bonta said. His office is coordinating with the secretary of state's office and Los Angeles County to review its options.
Weber's office said late Wednesday that the Justice Department had given the state 48 hours to obtain the list from Los Angeles, investigate it, and take action — a demand landing just three weeks before Election Day. The office also noted that over the summer, the Department of Homeland Security had claimed California had 190,000 noncitizens on its voter rolls but refused to share its methodology or data sources when asked.
Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan said Wednesday his office was reviewing the DOJ letter in coordination with the secretary of state and attorney general. A similar letter was sent to the county's registrar office after the U.S. attorney's office investigated during the state's June primary.
CNN noted the letters are an escalation in the department's attempts to press for aggressive voter purges while ballots are already going out in some states, after courts have repeatedly pushed back on administration efforts to insert itself into election administration. The Thursday deadline set by the department — noon Eastern — will determine whether the confrontation moves to federal court.
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