A woman wears an earring depicting US President Donald Trump during a Republican voter turnout event ahead of the midterm elections in The Villages, Florida, US, October 18, 2026. | Photo Credit: MARIA ALEJANDRA CARDONA
As Americans head to the polls on Tuesday for the midterm elections, the Trump administration has compiled a list of possible non-citizen voters that could be used to challenge the validity of the results.
With US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party struggling to maintain control of Congress, here’s how the list could affect the midterms.
WHAT DOES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MEAN IN ENGLISH?
The Trump administration admitted sending letters to election officials in five states – California, Washington, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Nevada – since October 30, saying there were no citizens on the voter rolls, according to a Justice Department document seen by Reuters.
In an Oct. 13 letter, the Justice Department asked California not to count the votes of about 20,000 registered voters “whom federal agencies believe are non-citizens” without first verifying citizenship, warning that election workers who processed them could be prosecuted. Trump endorsed the warning on social media: “They will all be in jail for a long time!!!”
State officials rejected requests to set aside people’s ballots on the list, which has not yet been announced. The Justice Department is now suing California to block the state from counting votes from a list of 20,000 voters. California says its protections against non-citizen voting are strong.
Non-citizen voting is illegal and can result in jail time, fines and deportation. The White House says non-citizen voting is an important issue that requires aggressive enforcement to protect the integrity of elections. Trump has long said it is widespread, but available evidence suggests it is rare. A Reuters investigation in July found only 129 cases in which noncitizens were federally charged with illegal voting since the federal “voting by alien” statute created by Congress in 1996; many appear to have resulted from confusion or administrative error rather than deliberate fraud.
The Department of Justice began to pursue non-citizen prosecutions. “Close elections are not rare, and every illegal ballot invalidates the vote of the American people,” Justice Department spokeswoman Kiersten Pels said in a statement. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed without evidence in a Fox News interview on Saturday that the agency found 300,000 non-citizens on voter rolls.
HOW DOES THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ASSEMBLE THE LIST?
The federal government does not have a centralized list of US citizens who are registered or eligible to vote. But the Trump administration is aggressively seeking state voter data to expand its role in determining voter eligibility.
States have constitutional authority over federal elections and many states create public voter rolls with personal information, such as driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of Social Security numbers, redacted.
The government has sought an unreleased roll to identify stateless persons. At least 16 states, including Alabama and Texas, have voluntarily complied. Thirty states, including California and New York, as well as Washington, DC, did not comply and were sued by the administration for voter rolls. Courts have rejected 27 such attempts so far, with most judges finding the federal government has no role in determining voter rights.
The Justice Department has appealed many of those losses. “Voters have a right to accurate voter rolls, and states should not hide them from federal review,” said Pels, the department’s spokeswoman.
The Department of Homeland Security obtained at least partial voter data from at least 47 states, typically including names, addresses and registration status and, in some cases, additional information such as dates of birth, according to new internal DHS emails reviewed by Reuters. Federal investigators then matched voter data against government databases to identify potential non-citizens, the email showed.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment. He said the investigation was conducted professionally and lawfully to preserve the integrity of the election.
WILL LIST AFFECT MIDTERMS?
The list could provide a basis for challenging the close election results, even as the government struggles to win in court. Under most state laws, only candidates or voters can challenge election results, but losing candidates can argue that suspected non-citizen votes cannot determine the legitimate winner, three legal experts told Reuters. And the Justice Department could pursue other legal avenues to try to block certification of the winners. The Justice Department says it will apply the law wherever the evidence is.
The challenge will face significant legal hurdles, in part because a review of the list of potential non-citizen voters found that many of the people on the list were U.S. citizens.
On October 28, a federal judge in California rejected the Justice Department’s bid to block the ballots of 20,000 voters identified as likely non-citizens, saying the move would “disrupt” the November 3 election and questioning the reliability of the lists. A federal appeals court upheld the decision on Oct. 30, citing a “material risk” of disenfranchising eligible voters.
The Justice Department will “probably” appeal to the US Supreme Court, Deputy US Attorney Trent McCotter said on Fox News on Saturday. He has acknowledged the California list could include US citizens.
The list and challenges ahead could lead to a narrow Democratic victory and prompt Trump-aligned state officials to reconsider or try to delay certification, though those efforts would face formidable obstacles, legal experts said. The government says the effort is aimed at identifying and prosecuting illegal voting and protecting the integrity of the election.
Published on November 1, 2026