The Justice Department sued California on Thursday, asking a federal court to bar election officials from tabulating vote-by-mail ballots from more than 20,000 registrants that Homeland Security agencies identified as likely noncitizens. The complaint lands three weeks before the midterm elections and two days after senior DOJ officials delivered a password-protected USB drive to state and Los Angeles County clerks, demanding a 48-hour cross-check against California’s rolls.
What the lawsuit seeks
According to the filing, federal investigators compiled a list of names they believe are “likely” noncitizens who were mailed ballots under California’s universal vote-by-mail law. Prosecutors say California refused to review the list jointly with Washington or to segregate returned ballots while citizenship is verified. The United States is not asking to purge the entire voter file, the department said in court papers, but to set aside ballots tied to those names until eligibility is confirmed.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter’s Tuesday letters to Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County officials included a handwritten password for the thumb drive, The Hill reported. Election lawyers in California said the demand arrived after millions of ballots had already been distributed and with absentee voting underway statewide.
California’s response
State leaders called the maneuver legally baseless and politically timed. Officials noted the Trump administration has lost more than two dozen federal cases over the past year when pressing states to hand over voter data or alter counting procedures. Weber’s office has maintained that California already removes ineligible registrants through established protocols and that self-attested citizenship at registration is checked against other records before ballots count.
The UCLA Voting Rights Project, which has sued DOJ and DHS to uncover how the federal “likely noncitizen” list was built, sought an emergency order this week to block California from being forced to match rolls to the drive. Thursday’s complaint instead relies on federal supremacy arguments, saying states cannot allow aliens to vote in federal contests.
Stakes for November
California mails a ballot to every active registrant, making any court order on segregation potentially sweeping even if the named universe is 20,000 people. Republican-aligned groups have amplified noncitizen voting claims in competitive House districts; Democrats frame the suit as a late attempt to suppress turnout in the nation’s largest blue state.
HSI and Justice officials said their review combined immigration and benefit data with registration records. No public hearing date was set immediately after the complaint was docketed in the Central District of California. County registrars said they would comply with any lawful court order but would not voluntarily halt counting on a federal list they have not been allowed to audit.
What happens next
Judges in California federal courts have been skeptical of similar federal election interventions since 2020, but the supremacy-clause framing is new in this cycle. A quick ruling could arrive before the first major tranche of mail ballots is processed after the October registration deadline. Until then, clerks said they would continue receiving ballots while lawyers for the state prepare a motion to dismiss.