US Justice Department Warns California Election Officials Over Suspected Noncitizen Voters

The US Department of Justice has warned election officials across California that they could face federal scrutiny and legal consequences if they fail to verify the citizenship status of suspected noncitizen voters and temporarily set aside their mail ballots ahead of the midterm elections.

In letters dated Friday, local officials were given 48 hours to help determine the citizenship status of individuals identified on federal government lists. The department shared six letters with Reuters on Saturday, signed by Bilal Essayli, first assistant US attorney for the Central District of California.

Essayli warned that continuing to process ballots from people on the lists without checking their citizenship could expose county officials to “significant federal scrutiny and legal exposure”.

Officials who knowingly counted ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens could risk becoming “aiders and abettors to a federal crime”, he wrote.

The letters referred to a previously distributed list of 20,000 people whom the Justice Department alleges are noncitizens registered to vote. They asked election officials to separate, rather than cancel, mail ballots belonging to individuals whose citizenship could not immediately be confirmed.

“For those whose citizenship status cannot be confirmed, we request that you immediately instruct the appropriate elections official to segregate, not cancel, those individuals’ vote-by-mail ballots until their citizenship status can be determined,” Essayli wrote.

The department identified 1,754 suspected noncitizens registered to vote in Orange County, 1,355 in Riverside County, 1,133 in San Bernardino County, 334 in Ventura County, 180 in Santa Barbara County and 63 in San Luis Obispo County. A separate letter to Contra Costa County listed 407 people described as “likely aliens”.

California election officials questioned the timing and enforceability of the demands.

“This letter came to us 11 days before Election Day with an unenforceable 48-hour deadline,” said Dawn Kruger, a spokesperson for Contra Costa County’s Elections Department. She added that the office was conducting the election in accordance with federal and state laws.

Versions of the letters were sent to all 58 counties in California, according to the New York Times.

The move comes as the Justice Department has increased prosecutions of people accused of voting illegally while lacking US citizenship. The White House has also urged federal agencies to accelerate reviews of at least 47 state voter rolls obtained by the Department of Homeland Security, according to an internal email reviewed by Reuters.

On October 16, the Justice Department issued a similar warning to Los Angeles County and California election officials over mail ballots associated with more than 20,000 people the Trump administration considers likely noncitizens.

California officials have rejected the administration’s approach, arguing that federal authorities have not provided sufficient information to support their allegations. Secretary of State Shirley Weber has accused the administration of seeking unlawful access to protected voter data and attempting to remove voters from registration lists, warning that such actions could undermine public confidence in elections.