Politics
DOJ Sues California Over Alleged 20,000 Non‑Citizen Voters Ahead of Midterms
The United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against California in a U.S. District Court on Thursday after the state failed to meet a 48‑hour deadline to review a list of registered non‑citizen voters that the DOJ had sent to county officials. The DOJ seeks a court order preventing California from counting mail‑in ballots for voters on a list it says contains about 20,000 non‑citizens. The agency said it had tried to work collaboratively with California to identify non‑citizens registered to vote, but the state made no serious effort.
The DOJ sent letters to officials in several California counties on Tuesday, threatening further action if the lists were not reviewed. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber responded with a three‑page letter stating that the DOJ’s demands threaten thousands of Californians’ right to vote based on unverifiable information. Weber said no list had been sent to her office and that the DOJ had not provided the names of the alleged non‑citizens. She criticized the DOJ’s request to review and confirm the citizenship status of approximately 20,000 individuals on the eve of an election within 48 hours, calling it an emergency created by the DOJ.
Los Angeles County election officials, one of the counties that received the ultimatum, noted that the threat was issued just 21 days before the November 3 midterm elections. The county said it received a thumb drive with the letter and a handwritten note that appeared to contain a password, but it would not access the drive because it was not a secure medium. The county emphasized that maintaining accurate voter lists is a fundamental responsibility and that removing individuals must be based on verifiable information.
The lawsuit follows President Donald Trump’s repeated false claims that large numbers of non‑citizens are voting in Democratic‑led states, including California. State officials have said the number of such voters is negligible and that the scale of the problem does not warrant intervention weeks before elections. California Governor Gavin Newsom called the DOJ lawsuit a “sad, desperate attempt” to suppress California voters and said courts have made clear that the federal government has no role in running state elections.
Earlier this month, a federal judge in Florida ruled that a federal law criminalizing voting by non‑citizens was unconstitutional, stating that only individual states have the authority to set voter qualifications. The DOJ has at least 45 such cases pending nationwide, where the accused could now raise the same objection. Another federal judge ruled that the DOJ unlawfully sought state voter rolls for cross‑checking against the controversial Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, which has been found inaccurate and capable of flagging citizens as non‑citizens. The judge said forcing states to use such a database would be unconstitutional.
In September, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a Trump administration effort to restrict mail‑in ballots for the November 3 elections. Two dozen states, led by Democrats, filed lawsuits against the administration over attempts to limit mail‑in voting, including an executive order directing federal agencies not to handle mail‑in ballots without verifying the eligibility of those casting them. According to the Election Assistance Commission, about 30 percent of all ballots cast in the 2024 elections were sent by mail, with even higher usage in western states such as California.