Justice Department sues to block counting of 20,000 California mail ballots in latest voter-suppression fight
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The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against California seeking to stop the state from counting mail ballots for roughly 20,000 voters it says may be non-citizens, drawing sharp backlash from state leaders who call the move an unlawful attack on voters and on state election authority.
The Justice Department filed a complaint in the Central District of California asking a federal judge to block the state from counting mail ballots for about 20,000 voters identified by federal immigration agencies as "likely noncitizens." The suit, filed on Thursday, claims the voters were sent ballots in violation of federal election law and the Supremacy Clause, turning a disputed administrative issue into an aggressive federal intervention in a state election.
U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the action, saying that "state-facilitated voter fraud is unacceptable" and warning that California could damage confidence in the electoral system if the ballots are counted. Critics say the lawsuit amounts to a heavy-handed attempt to manufacture fear around voting and to cast suspicion on lawful ballots before any evidence has been tested in court.
California Governor Gavin Newsom responded on X, describing the lawsuit as an effort to suppress voters and insisting that courts have already ruled the federal government has no role in running state elections. Attorney General Rob Bonta also posted on X that the administration's demands are without merit and that no widespread voter fraud has been found, underscoring the state's position that the case is politically motivated rather than legally necessary.
The complaint relies on a review by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Homeland Security Investigations, which together identified the 20,000 individuals with "high confidence" as likely noncitizens. The Department of Justice gave California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan 48 hours to set aside the ballots, threatening emergency relief if they did not comply and escalating the dispute into an urgent courtroom showdown.
Weber and Logan rejected the request, noting that the list includes voters from across the state and that the Justice Department has not provided the underlying evidence or methodology. Weber called the demand an "emergency of the DOJ’s creation" and said California will continue to follow applicable federal and state law, framing the federal push as an attempt to override transparency with intimidation.
The lawsuit arrives weeks before the November 3 midterm elections, which have already begun with mail-in voting. Separate litigation in Washington, D.C., brought by the UCLA Voting Rights Project seeks to block the Justice Department from interfering in California’s election process.
Democratic senators, including Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, wrote to Attorney General Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, condemning the Justice Department’s actions as an effort to challenge ballots ahead of Election Day and urging officials to focus instead on conducting a safe election.