Justice Department urges California counties to verify citizenship of voters ahead of midterms
The U.S. Justice Department sent letters to all 58 California counties demanding they identify suspected noncitizen voters and set aside their mail ballots pending citizenship checks, prompting pushback from state officials.
The Justice Department has sent letters to election officials in every California county, giving them 48 hours to help determine the citizenship status of individuals on federal lists and to segregate, rather than cancel, mail ballots until verification is possible. The letters, signed by Bilal Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, warned that processing ballots without such checks could expose counties to "significant federal scrutiny and legal exposure."
The correspondence listed local statistics drawn from a list of about 20,000 people the department alleges are noncitizens registered to vote, including 1,754 in Orange County, 1,355 in Riverside County, 1,133 in San Bernardino County, 334 in Ventura County, 180 in Santa Barbara County, 63 in San Luis Obispo County, and 407 in Contra Costa County.
"This letter came to us 11 days before Election Day with an unenforceable 48-hour deadline," Dawn Kruger, spokesperson for Contra Costa County’s Elections Department, said, adding that the office will continue to conduct the election in accordance with federal and state laws.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta accused the Justice Department of acting at President Donald Trump's direction and said it was "politicizing and weaponizing the law to attack its enemies." State Secretary of State Shirley Weber similarly criticized the effort as an unlawful attempt to access protected voter data and purge rolls, warning it could undermine confidence in elections.
The Justice Department’s demand follows a broader push to prosecute alleged illegal voting and an internal White House directive to accelerate review of voter rolls obtained from the Department of Homeland Security. Earlier in the week, the department warned Los Angeles County and other officials that they could be liable as abettors of a federal crime if they counted mail ballots from more than 20,000 people the Trump administration says are probably noncitizens, and it asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene in a related lawsuit.