The Trump administration has taken legal action against California election officials, seeking a court order that would prevent the state from counting mail-in ballots cast by voters the federal government has identified as “likely” noncitizens until their immigration status is verified.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday, came after the Justice Department accused California election authorities of failing to comply with a 48-hour deadline to examine a password-protected thumb drive containing about 20,000 names.
According to the federal government, the individuals on the list are likely noncitizens who received ballots for the November 3 election. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, however, has said the administration has not supplied evidence to substantiate the allegation.
California sends mail-in ballots to all registered voters in the state.
The legal action follows a warning issued earlier in the week by a senior Justice Department official, who threatened to take the matter to court if California failed to comply with the federal demand.
The federal government has not disclosed the locations of the 20,000 voters on the list. The data was instead delivered directly to Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan on Tuesday, his office confirmed.
Logan’s office said the list covers voters across California rather than only those in Los Angeles County. Despite that, Logan is the only county election official named as a defendant in the lawsuit, even though his office has no authority over ballots in other counties.
Responding to the lawsuit, Logan said his office could not stop ballots from being counted “based solely on unverified allegations.”
More than 23 million people are registered to vote across California, with several closely contested congressional races taking place in other districts. The outcomes of some of those contests could influence which party controls the US House during the final two years of President Donald Trump’s current term.
California’s secretary of state has strongly challenged the federal government’s claims. In a letter to the Justice Department, Weber said no evidence had been provided to demonstrate that the 20,000 names identified were noncitizens.
She pointed to a similar situation in Nevada, where federal officials initially identified nearly 16,000 people as possible noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls. According to Weber, Nevada officials later determined that all those flagged were actually US citizens.
Weber also stressed that voting had already begun in California and criticised the federal government’s demands.
The Democratic secretary of state described the Justice Department’s request as “demanding unprecedented measures that threaten thousands of Californians’ right to vote, based on unverifiable information or methodology that you still fail to explain or provide.”
She maintained that California’s elections remain in “full compliance” with federal law.
