The Trump administration is urging states to address voter eligibility issues ahead of the November midterm elections, with the Justice Department threatening legal action against California unless state and local election officials review federal lists of suspected noncitizen voters within 48 hours.
The deadline is Thursday, October 15 at noon Eastern Time.
exist letter Acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter sent the document to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan on Tuesday, asking officials to review a list of noncitizens the federal government believes may have received mail-in ballots in the Nov. 3 election.
Weber’s office issued a statement late Wednesday saying the Justice Department “asks California to blindly trust this administration without any evidence or legal authority to justify its request.”
“The Office of the Secretary of State (SOS) received a request to review a list of an unknown number of individuals ‘who the federal government believes may be non-citizens,’ but the U.S. Department of Justice has not provided that list to our office.”
The statement quoted Weber directly: “The U.S. Department of Justice’s relentless efforts to illegally obtain states’ protected voter data and purge voter rolls will only create confusion and fuel public distrust in our elections.”
The Justice Department provided Los Angeles County with a password-protected thumb drive containing names and asked officials to determine whether any U.S. citizens were mistakenly included. For individuals who cannot independently confirm their citizenship status, McCourt asked officials to put their ballots on hold until their status is resolved.
The letter also calls on officials to stop sending ballots to individuals on the list who have not yet received their ballots and not to verify signatures or tabulate returned ballots until citizenship status is determined.
“If this process cannot be implemented by then, the United States will have no choice but to seek emergency relief given the ongoing federal elections,” McCourt wrote.
“Allowing non-citizens to vote would cancel the referendum,” he added.
The letters did not reveal how many voters were on the list or explain the methods the federal government used to identify voters. Reuters The letters were first reported. As of Wednesday, California election officials had not publicly responded to the latest request. The state began mailing ballots to registered voters on Oct. 5, leaving election officials little time to survey the lists before a federal deadline.
The Justice Department defended its intervention, arguing that noncitizens are prohibited from voting in federal elections. Justice Department spokesperson Kiersten Pels reportedly said in a statement that “this should not be controversial because the criminal statutes are clear: Only U.S. citizens can vote in federal elections.” Politico. “The department will take all necessary legal action to protect the integrity of the election and ensure compliance with federal law.”
The requests are part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to identify and remove non-citizens from voter registration lists.
Federal officials claim hundreds of thousands of noncitizens are registered to vote, but those claims face scrutiny over the accuracy of government data and the extent to which flagged individuals actually voted.
The administration is also seeking unredacted voter registration data from states across the country and has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., for refusing to provide the requested records. A federal judge has rejected the department’s request for those records in cases decided so far, including a lawsuit involving California.
The government has encountered other legal obstacles in its election security efforts. Supreme Court keep on hold Postal Service’s new requirements for mail-in ballots, courts also stopped Parts of Trump’s 2025 executive order impose new requirements for proof of citizenship in voter registration.