The Justice Department gives California 48 hours to review its list of possible non-citizens on voter rolls.
The Justice Department gave California 48 hours to confirm whether mail-in ballots were sent to non-citizens, threatening emergency aid if it fails to act.
The Justice Department is threatening California with possible legal action after it says the state mailed ballots to noncitizens ahead of midterm elections.
The Justice Department sent a letter to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber on Tuesday informing her that federal authorities have provided Los Angeles County elections officials with a list of names of people officials believe are noncitizens.
Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney Trent McCotter warned that the state has 48 hours to confirm whether anyone on the list has mailed ballots for the Nov. 3 election. This deadline ends on Thursday.
"If you fail to implement this process by then in light of the current federal election, the United States will have no choice but to request emergency assistance," the letter said.
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Weber released a statement Wednesday protesting the federal demands, linking them to previous Justice Department efforts to remove noncitizens from California's voter rolls.
After the non-citizen registration scandal, the Justice Department gave New Jersey five days to turn over voter data.
"In July of this year, President Trump and DHS Secretary Marquin Mullin made (still) unsubstantiated claims that California had 190,000 non-citizens on its voter rolls. Information about their methodology and data sources to back up their claims. They refused and gave California nothing," Weber said in a statement.
"Now the USDOJ, under threat of an 'emergency' lawsuit, is asking California to blindly trust this government without any evidence or legal authorization to justify its request," he continued.
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"USDOJ's relentless efforts to illegally access protected states' voter data and purge voter rolls only serves to create chaos and fuel public distrust of our elections," Weber added. “California has strong state law requirements that only US citizens can register to vote, and any ineligible registrants will be removed from the state's voter rolls. My office and California election officials are committed — as always — to ensuring a fair and smooth general election in 2026."
President Donald Trump's administration has stepped up scrutiny of state voter rolls since taking office as part of the president's broader interest in election integrity.
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The government received approval from the Supreme Court in late September to move forward with its extensive voter verification system.
The Sept. 25 emergency order allows states to use a Department of Homeland Security program called Systematic Verification of Alien Entitlement (SAVE) to try to verify the eligibility of voters on their rolls, as the Justice Department has done in California.
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The court ruling halts a June ruling by a federal judge that found the Republican administration's revised version of SAVE unconstitutional. U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan had blocked the use of the tool, saying it violated Americans' privacy rights and could lead to voters being mistakenly removed from the rolls.
The Trump administration moved to expand SAVE after the president signed an executive order creating a federal voter registration list and imposing new eligibility restrictions for mail-in voting as part of a broader effort to combat voter fraud.
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