LOS ANGELES (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice has issued a warning to California regarding potential legal action over allegations that noncitizens may have received mail ballots for the upcoming midterm elections. A letter sent on Tuesday to Secretary of State Shirley Weber from Trent McCotter, the acting deputy U.S. attorney general, indicates that the department has provided officials in Los Angeles County with a password-protected thumb drive containing a list of names believed to be noncitizens who were sent ballots for the November 3 election.
California mails ballots to all registered voters. The letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press, gives the state 48 hours to verify whether any citizens are included on the list. For individuals whose citizenship cannot be independently verified, the state is instructed to direct local election officials to segregate their mail-in ballots until their status can be confirmed and to refrain from providing a ballot to anyone who has not yet received one. The letter warns that legal action may follow if the state does not comply with the 48-hour deadline to review the list.
"If you cannot implement this process by then, given the ongoing federal election, the United States will have no choice but to seek emergency relief," the letter states.
A similar letter was sent to the registrar's office in Los Angeles County, which had been investigated by the U.S. attorney's office during the state's June primary. Neither the California secretary of state nor the Los Angeles County registrar immediately responded to requests for comment.
The Trump administration has prioritized investigating noncitizen voters this year, despite the issue being rare. The Justice Department has charged around 90 individuals for various forms of election misconduct in 2023, including 50 who are alleged to have voted as noncitizens. There were more than 227 million registered voters in the United States during the 2024 presidential election.
In July, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin sent letters to California, Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, claiming that as many as 250,000 noncitizens were registered in those states. Election officials expressed skepticism regarding this claim, including Weber, who stated, "I have serious doubts about the reliability of your data and accuracy of your claims, since my office has not shared our statewide voter registration list with DHS or any other federal agency or official."
That same month, the Republican administration alleged that Nevada had 1,500 noncitizen voters on its rolls. However, after the federal government identified them to the state, the actual number of registered noncitizens turned out to be zero.
As part of its initiative to identify noncitizens on voter rolls, the Justice Department has sought detailed voter information, including dates of birth, addresses, driver's license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers from states. Some Republican-led states have complied, and this information has been cross-referenced with a U.S. Department of Homeland Security database that has faced criticism for inaccurately flagging U.S. citizens.
The Justice Department has filed lawsuits against 30 states and the District of Columbia for this information, but has lost those cases in court. California is among the states that successfully challenged these requests, arguing that compliance would violate state privacy laws.
Santa Cruz County Clerk Tricia Webber, president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials, commented that she had not seen the letters but described the 48-hour deadline to vet voters flagged by the federal government as "completely unreasonable." She noted that investigating reports of ineligible voters requires thorough due diligence, which cannot be completed within 48 hours. Webber also questioned how the federal government compiled its list of alleged noncitizen voters, given its lack of access to detailed state voter information. Throughout her career, she stated she has "never seen anything that would make me believe that our voter records are filled with fraudulent voters."