The Trump administration filed a lawsuit against California election authorities on Thursday, requesting that a judge prohibit the state from tallying mail-in ballots from individuals the federal government has designated as “likely” noncitizens for the midterm elections scheduled for next month unless their immigration status is verified.
The complaint was filed after the Justice Department claimed that California officials had not reviewed a password-protected flash drive with a list of 20,000 names within the allotted 48 hours. Those are probably noncitizens who received ballots to cast ballots in the election on November 3, according to the federal administration.
Quick Fact
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| What Happened | The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit over alleged noncitizen voter registration in California. |
| Where | California, United States |
| When | The exact filing date was not provided in the source material. |
| Who Is Involved | The U.S. Justice Department, California election officials, David Becker, Bill Essayli, and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan. |
| Main Issue | Allegations involving noncitizen voter registration, election security, and ballot counting. |
| Expert Opinion | Election law expert David Becker questioned the legal basis and timing of the lawsuit. |
| Federal Government's Position | Federal officials say the lawsuit aims to protect eligible American voters. |
| California's Position | Dean Logan said officials cannot reject ballots solely on the basis of unverified allegations. |
| Current Status | The supplied information does not confirm a final court ruling. |
| Why It Matters | The dispute raises questions about voter eligibility, election oversight, cybersecurity, and voting rights. |
California Officials Reject Unverified Voter Allegations
The Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan received the list directly on Tuesday, according to a statement from his office, although the federal government did not indicate where the 20,000 voters were clustered.
Logan is the only county election officer named as a defendant in the case, but according to his office, the list included voter names from all throughout California, not just Los Angeles. Voting outside of Los Angeles County is outside of his jurisdiction.
Logan stated in a statement on Thursday that his agency cannot refuse to count or withhold ballots “based solely on unverified allegations.”
California Officials Reject Unverified Voter Allegations
In a letter to the Justice Department, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber stated that the federal government has not shown proof for its claim that 20,000 names on the state’s voter records belong to noncitizens. She cited a case where the federal government first claimed that Nevada’s voter rolls contained over 16,000 potential noncitizens.
She added that the state is already holding elections. The Justice Department is “demanding unprecedented measures that threaten thousands of Californians’ right to vote, based on unverifiable information or methodology that you still fail to explain or provide,” according to Democrat Weber.
Expert Questions DOJ’s Voter Lawsuit Motives
The Center for Election Innovation and Research’s director, election law expert David Becker, described the Justice Department’s case as “fairly frivolous.”
“They would have done this months ago in a very different fashion if they were trying to work in good faith to clean up the voter list that they believed had issues,” Becker stated. “It does, however, raise questions about whether or not this is just being done to set the stage for false claims about elections.”
A thumb drive containing a list of suspected illegitimate voters was supplied.
DOJ Seeks Halt to California Mail Ballots
Due to cybersecurity protocols, most election officials would not be able to comply with the Justice Department’s request.
He said, “There is a very good reason why election offices do not simply plug thumb drives into their technology.”
According to the Justice Department’s lawsuit, “California made no serious effort to do so,” despite the federal government’s attempts to “work collaboratively” with the state to identify noncitizens who were registered to vote there.
The lawsuit states that “the United States thus seeks commonplace election relief when a ballot is called into question.”
Letters sent weeks before elections
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter’s letter gives the state 48 hours to investigate the list of 20,000 individuals it believes may not be citizens.
The state must direct local election authorities to separate mail-in ballots for those whose citizenship cannot be independently verified until their immigration status can be ascertained, and to refrain from distributing ballots to those who have not yet received one.
“What became of those 170,000? Bonta remarked, “They just got those wrong.”
Trump Administration Faces Criticism Over Voter Lawsuit
He declared, “They are in unprecedented, baseless, lawless territory.”
Despite the extremely unusual nature of the issue, the Trump administration has made the search for noncitizen voters a top priority this year. So far this year, the Justice Department has charged over 90 individuals for various forms of election malpractice, including 50 who are accused of casting ballots while not citizens. During the 2024 presidential election, there were over 227 million registered voters in the US.
In a post on X, he stated, “This is not political or controversial.” “We will not permit California to dilute American citizens’ votes.”
