DOJ Gives California 48 Hours, Threatens Legal Action

The Justice Department gave California election officials 48 hours to review a federal list of people it believes may be noncitizens who received mail ballots for the Nov. 3 midterm election, threatening emergency legal action if they do not comply. It wants officials to verify citizenship, withhold ballots not yet sent and set aside—not cancel—ballots from people whose status cannot be confirmed; returned ballots should not be counted while status is unresolved. Similar letters reportedly went to multiple counties, and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan said his office had not opened a password-protected USB drive over data-security concerns, adding that the letter did not say how many people were listed or what records it contained. With voting underway, California officials had not publicly responded as of Oct. 14, while Sen. Adam Schiff condemned the demand as federal interference in the state’s elections. The demand escalates the Trump administration’s scrutiny of voter rolls amid broader federal requests for voter-registration data and disputes over federal access and state control; the federal government’s legal authority to compel compliance is unclear. Noncitizen voting is rare, and critics warn that screening could wrongly flag eligible voters.