US Justice Department Pressures California on Ballots for Alleged Non-Citizen Voters

As midterm elections are in full swing, the U.S. Justice Department has intensified its campaign against California election officials, urging them to identify and address alleged voter fraud. The federal agency is demanding that state officials verify the citizenship of thousands of voters flagged as potential non-citizens or, failing that, withhold or set aside their ballots ahead of the November 3rd election. Legal experts have raised questions about the legality of this demand, especially given similar federal lists in other states have proven highly inaccurate, potentially leading to the disenfranchisement of eligible voters.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter communicated these directives through letters sent on Tuesday to key state election officials, including Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Dean Logan, who heads the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office. The letters, which were seen by The Times, stipulate a 48-hour window for state officials to respond to the Justice Department. This demand comes at a critical time when voting is already underway, drawing further scrutiny from experts.

McCotter revealed that his department had supplied Logan’s office with a "password-protected thumb drive with a list of names the Federal Government believes are likely noncitizens who were sent a vote-by-mail ballot" for the upcoming election. He explicitly requested a review of this list within 48 hours to ascertain if any citizens were included. For individuals whose citizenship status could not be independently confirmed, McCotter instructed officials to "immediately instruct the appropriate elections officials to segregate — not cancel — those individuals’ vote-by-mail ballots until their citizenship status can be determined."

Furthermore, McCotter’s letter directed that voters on the federal list who had not yet received a ballot should not be issued one until their citizenship is verified. Similarly, any ballots already submitted by individuals on the list should not be counted until their citizenship status is confirmed.

In a statement released late Wednesday, Secretary Weber’s office sharply criticized the Justice Department. She highlighted the impracticality of the 48-hour deadline for obtaining an unverified list of voters, investigating them, and taking action, especially given the history of inaccurate federal data leading to the removal of U.S. citizens from voter rolls in other states. Weber also pointed out that the Justice Department provided no legal authority for its demands, despite threatening litigation. She stated that the Justice Department’s "relentless efforts to unlawfully gain access to states’ protected voter data and purge voter rolls serve only to cause chaos and fuel public distrust in our elections," adding that California already has "robust state law requirements" to ensure only U.S. citizens cast votes.

Dean Logan confirmed that his office was reviewing the Justice Department’s letter in collaboration with Secretary Weber and California Attorney General Rob Bonta. However, Logan stated his office had not accessed the USB drive, citing that state officials "do not consider the device a secure medium" and that accessing its contents "would conflict with established data privacy and information security protocols." While affirming his office’s commitment to accurate voter records, Logan emphasized that federal and state laws "are clear on how voter eligibility is established — and any action to remove a voter from eligibility must be based on verifiable information, not assertions of unconfirmed data matching."

This latest development is part of an ongoing election-related dispute with the Trump administration. Previously, L.A. County had received federal grand jury subpoenas requesting voter registration data for numerous individuals suspected by the Trump administration of not being U.S. citizens. Secretary Weber had earlier questioned Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s July claim of over 190,000 noncitizen voters on California rolls and had rejected Trump administration offers to collaborate on purging state rolls without more detailed information on how these conclusions were reached.

Election experts have expressed heightened concern over the demand on California, especially as ballots have already been distributed. They note that similar lists from the Trump administration in other states have been largely inaccurate, often including many legitimate citizens. David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, questioned the Justice Department’s actions: “One must question why the DOJ would violate its own rules about investigating elections close to election day, and over a week after they knew the state had already mailed ballots out, particularly when their past claims have been full of errors.” Becker cited an instance where the Trump administration initially claimed nearly 16,000 noncitizens were registered in Nevada, a number later reduced to 185 after further review.