By The Trump administration sued California on Thursday, alleging that more than 20,000 likely noncitizens are registered to vote in the state and may have received mail-in ballots ahead of the November midterm elections.
The federal lawsuit, filed against California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan, follows an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security that compared voter-registration records with federal immigration data. Investigators identified approximately 20,000 people believed to be noncitizens, many of them registered in Los Angeles County.
Under California law, all registered voters automatically receive mail-in ballots. The Justice Department alleges that thousands of potentially ineligible voters were mailed ballots beginning October 1, raising concerns that votes cast by noncitizens could be counted in the November 3 elections. Voting in federal elections is illegal for noncitizens.
Time is up for California
We gave California 48 hours to review and flag more than 20,000 noncitizen voters recently mailed live ballots.
California refused.
This morning we filed a federal court action seeking an emergency order requiring California to sequester ballots… pic.twitter.com/4D9E2UyBHm
— F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) October 15, 2026
“State-facilitated voter fraud is unacceptable in the United States of America,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “If found responsible in a court of law, the State of California will have seriously undermined confidence in our electoral system and violated laws that protect our nation’s representative system of government.”
Federal officials notified California election administrators of the suspected ineligible voters on October 13, giving them 48 hours to investigate their citizenship status and separate potentially unlawful ballots from legitimate votes. State officials declined the request, questioning the reliability of the federal data and the legality of the demands.
“California election officials were given an opportunity to remove noncitizens from their voter rolls and to sequester ballots returned from suspected ineligible voters. They refused,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said. “We are taking California to federal court to demand that the votes of American citizens not be diluted by noncitizens.”
The complaint also challenges California’s ballot-verification procedures, alleging that election officials use permissive signature standards, including accepting ballots signed with an “X.” Federal prosecutors argue that the state’s election practices could allow ineligible voters to participate without adequate safeguards.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom denounced the lawsuit, accusing President Donald Trump of attempting to interfere with the election. “This is a sad, desperate attempt by Trump to use his politicized Justice Department to try to suppress California voters just three weeks before Election Day,” Newsom wrote on Twitter.
This is a sad, desperate attempt by Trump to use his politicized Justice Department to try to suppress California voters just three weeks before Election Day.
Courts have made clear the federal government has no role in running state elections.
We will defend free and fair… https://t.co/szA7UpePjc
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) October 15, 2026
California officials maintain that the federal government’s list has not been sufficiently verified and could include eligible American citizens. The lawsuit does not establish that all 20,000 people identified are noncitizens or that they have cast illegal votes.
