DOJ Sues California to Block Mail Ballots of 20,000 Alleged Noncitizen Voters
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice filed a federal lawsuit against California on Thursday, asking a court to block the state from counting mail-in ballots cast by more than 20,000 voters the Trump administration says may not be U.S. citizens — an escalation of the administration's push for federal control over elections less than three weeks before the midterms.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, seeks an emergency order that would force state officials to set aside vote-by-mail ballots returned by people the federal government has identified as "likely noncitizens" until their citizenship can be verified — either by the state independently or in collaboration with federal officials.
On October 13, Acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter sent letters to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan, giving the state 48 hours — until noon Eastern on Thursday — to review a password-protected thumb drive listing the flagged voters. Officials were told to segregate any returned ballots from those names and withhold remaining unsent ballots pending verification.
California refused. Weber replied that the list of roughly 20,000 names "lacks both the detail and function to be of any investigative use," and that the federal government never explained its basis for suspecting those people are noncitizens. She also pointed to the National Voter Registration Act's 90-day quiet period against systematic list maintenance before a federal election, and California law requiring ballots to be mailed to registered voters and tabulated once returned.
"We gave California 48 hours to review and flag more than 20,000 noncitizen voters recently mailed live ballots," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli posted on X Thursday morning. "California refused. This morning we filed a federal court action seeking an emergency order requiring California to sequester ballots returned by suspected noncitizens."
Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement: "We provided California an opportunity to self-correct its records. California has refused to comply," adding that "state-facilitated voter fraud is unacceptable in the United States of America."
Governor Gavin Newsom called the suit "unfounded" and "a sad, desperate attempt by Trump to use his politicized Justice Department to try to suppress California voters just three weeks before Election Day," arguing "the federal government has no role in how a state carries out its election process."
Voting is already underway in California, where every active registered voter receives a mail ballot. The DOJ's 15-page complaint alleges that Homeland Security agencies found "thousands of likely noncitizens registered to vote in California who would automatically be sent federal ballots" under state law, identified through cross-checks of voter rolls against immigration records and SAVE data.
The case is a significant extension of the administration's multi-pronged campaign to intervene in the November 3 midterm elections, which will decide control of Congress for the rest of President Trump's term.
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