The U.S. Department of Justice warned local election officials across California on Friday to cooperate with federal efforts to identify noncitizens on voter registration rolls or face potential legal consequences. The aggressive move marks an escalation in the administration’s campaign to block the state from counting ballots cast by individuals flagged by the federal government as likely noncitizens.
Letters were dispatched to 57 of California’s 58 counties. Los Angeles County received a similar directive the previous week. The correspondence sent to San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters Joani Finwall by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles included a list containing 1,133 names categorized as likely noncitizens.
In the letter, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bilal Essayli requested a commitment within 48 hours to collaborate with the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security to establish the citizenship status of individuals on the roster. Essayli explicitly warned against continuing to mail vote-by-mail ballots to those individuals or tabulating ballots cast by them before citizenship verification is complete.
For voters whose citizenship status remains unconfirmed, federal prosecutors instructed counties to segregate, rather than cancel, their mail-in ballots until an official determination is made. The letter cautioned that the legal ramifications for facilitating or ignoring federal offenses are substantial, noting that noncitizen voting in federal elections is a federal crime and that knowingly facilitating such activity is equally unlawful.
In a statement regarding the directive, Essayli maintained that the letters speak for themselves and warned that any election official who knowingly processes a noncitizen ballot exposes themselves to legal jeopardy.
Democratic lawmakers swiftly condemned the federal action. Senator Alex Padilla of California criticized the administration’s initiative in a Friday statement, asserting that officials have failed to provide evidence supporting claims of widespread voter fraud and have acknowledged that their data is inaccurate and unreliable. Padilla maintained that federal authorities lack the authority to interfere regardless of lawsuits filed or threats directed at election officials.
The push targeting California forms part of a broader administration priority ahead of the midterms, focusing heavily on Democratic-leaning jurisdictions. The federal government has previously filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent California from counting more than 20,000 mail-in ballots from voters suspected of lacking U.S. citizenship, and recently asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to enforce restrictions prior to a lower court ruling.
