DOJ Gives California 48 Hours to Scrutinize Alleged Noncitizen Mail Ballots

The Justice Department has given California election officials 48 hours to review a federal list of people it says are likely noncitizens who received mail ballots for the Nov. 3 midterms—or face emergency court action—escalating a nationwide push over voter rolls weeks after ballots already went out.

In an Oct. 13 letter reviewed by CBS News and first reported by Reuters, acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter told California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan that the department had provided a password-protected thumb drive with names the federal government “believes are likely noncitizens” who were sent vote-by-mail ballots.

Segregate, don’t cancel, ballots

McCotter instructed officials to determine the citizenship status of each person on the list within 48 hours. For anyone whose citizenship cannot be independently confirmed, he asked counties to “segregate — not cancel” returned mail ballots until status is resolved, and to withhold ballots not yet sent until citizenship is confirmed.

“Allowing noncitizens to vote cancels citizen votes,” McCotter wrote. The letter warned that if California does not comply, the federal government “will have no choice but to seek emergency relief.” A Los Angeles County spokesperson confirmed receiving the letter; similar notices went to other California counties, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The demand follows a July warning from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin that federal officials believed noncitizens appeared on California’s rolls. The Civil Rights Division under Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon has filed dozens of lawsuits seeking unredacted voter lists nationwide and has said it intends to share data with DHS for noncitizen screening. Courts have blocked most of those efforts to date.

Timing fuels pushback

California mailed ballots to all registered voters on Oct. 5. Election-law experts questioned why the Justice Department waited until after ballots were in the mail and so close to Election Day, noting past federal claims of noncitizen registrations have often included errors.

Voting-rights scholars have long said proven noncitizen voting is exceedingly rare and insufficient to swing statewide outcomes. A recent Reuters analysis found states may have added more than 30,000 self-declared noncitizens to rolls since 2000 through driver’s-license software glitches and clerical mistakes—a small share of roughly 174 million registered voters in 2024.

Since President Donald Trump took office, the Justice Department says it has charged more than 100 people with voter-fraud-related crimes. California officials have not yet detailed how they will respond to the 48-hour deadline, but the standoff adds another flashpoint to a midterm season already dominated by fights over monitoring, citizenship checks, and federal involvement in state election administration.