The U.S. Department of Justice sued California on Thursday, asking a federal judge to stop the state from counting mail-in ballots cast by more than 20,000 voters the Trump administration says are likely not American citizens. The lawsuit, filed October 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, escalates a fast-moving fight over who gets to set election rules less than three weeks before the November 3 midterm elections.
DOJ sues California: what the lawsuit asks the court to do
The 15-page filing, brought by Justice Department lawyer Andrew Darlington, doesn't ask the court to throw any votes away. Instead, it asks the judge to order California to set aside vote-by-mail ballots from people on the federal government's list and check whether each person is actually a U.S. citizen before those ballots get counted.
Darlington wrote that the court should stop California from "presently tabulating vote-by-mail ballots from likely noncitizens in the upcoming federal election until the voter's citizenship status can be determined." The verification, he added, would need to go "beyond relying on unverified statements of citizenship necessary to registering."
The defendants are the State of California, Secretary of State Shirley Weber, and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan. The DOJ is seeking statewide relief, not just action in Los Angeles County.
Why the Justice Department says it sued California
The case didn't come out of nowhere. Two days earlier, on October 13, Acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter sent letters to Weber and Logan giving California 48 hours to review the list and pull aside any ballots from people whose citizenship couldn't be confirmed. The list arrived on a password-protected thumb drive delivered to Los Angeles County.
The delivery itself became a side story. Logan's office said it got the drive with a handwritten password and wouldn't treat the device as secure. Weber's office said the password was written on a sticky note.
When the Thursday noon deadline passed without California completing the review, the DOJ went to court the same day. Attorney General Todd Blanche didn't mince words: "State-facilitated voter fraud is unacceptable in the United States of America," he said in a statement announcing the suit. After the filing, Blanche added, "We provided California an opportunity to self correct its records. California has refused to comply."
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who handles the Central District of California, was blunter still on X: "This is not political or controversial," he wrote, adding that "we will not allow California to dilute the votes of American citizens."
How did federal officials build the list? According to the DOJ's own announcement, Homeland Security Investigations, working with federal partners, analyzed publicly available voter-registration records to find signs that noncitizens may have registered to vote, cast ballots, or received election mail, using what it called "multiple data-enrichment and verification methods." According to Newsmax's reading of the complaint, federal officials started from purchased California voter data, filtered for the matches they trusted most, and then checked those names against naturalization files, State Department records, and Social Security death data.
California's answer: 'unfounded' and built on bad data
California isn't buying it. Weber, the state's chief elections officer, said the roughly 20,000-name list "lacks both the detail and function to be of any investigative use," and that the federal government never explained how it decided the people on it are noncitizens. "This is an emergency of the DOJ's creation," she said in a reply sent shortly before the lawsuit was filed.
Governor Gavin Newsom's office called the lawsuit "unfounded" on Thursday. Senator Adam Schiff went further, calling it "another dangerous attempt to destabilize our safe and secure elections" and promising that "California will defend against this meddling and unwarranted intrusion on our constitutional rights."
Why it matters
This is about more than 20,000 names on a spreadsheet. The Wall Street Journal called the suit "a significant extension of the administration's efforts to expand federal control over elections," and the timing is impossible to ignore. The November 3 midterms will decide control of Congress for the rest of President Trump's term, and voting is already underway in California, where every active registered voter automatically gets a mail ballot. The state is one of eight that conduct all elections by mail.
Trump has railed against mail-in voting for years, calling it open to manipulation, and in June he questioned California's primary results over its slow counting process. The administration has also alleged for months that states including California have noncitizens on their voter rolls.
Here's the part that often gets lost in the shouting: the lawsuit doesn't claim it has proven anyone voted illegally, and it doesn't ask to cancel ballots that are already cast. It asks the court to make California segregate the flagged ballots and verify citizenship before counting them. A judge hasn't ruled yet, so for now, nothing about how California counts votes has changed.
What happens next in the ballot fight
The DOJ wants emergency relief, which means a judge could rule quickly — possibly within days. If the court grants even part of the request, California would have to pull aside thousands of ballots and run citizenship checks in the middle of an election that's already happening.
If the judge says no, the administration's broader campaign to push states on voter-roll citizenship checks takes a serious hit. Either way, expect appeals, more letters, and more courtroom fights — this dispute is really about who gets the final word on how American elections are run: Washington or the states.
Key Takeaways
- The Justice Department sued California on October 15, asking a federal court to stop the state from counting mail ballots from more than 20,000 voters federal officials say are likely noncitizens until citizenship is verified.
- The suit followed a 48-hour deadline set October 13 by Acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter, which California did not meet.
- California officials call the lawsuit "unfounded" and say the 20,000-name list is too unreliable to act on.
- The case lands less than three weeks before the November 3 midterms, with voting already underway in all-mail California.
- A judge has not yet ruled, and the DOJ has not proven that any noncitizen actually voted.
- The bigger question is constitutional: how much control the federal government has over how states run their elections.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the DOJ suing California over mail ballots?
The Justice Department says more than 20,000 people who are likely noncitizens are registered to vote in California and may have been mailed ballots. It wants a federal judge to order California to set aside those voters' mail ballots and verify their citizenship before counting them in the November 3 federal election.
What exactly does the DOJ want the court to do with the 20,000 ballots?
The DOJ is not asking to cancel ballots already cast. It wants the court to require California to segregate vote-by-mail ballots from voters on the federal list and confirm each person's citizenship — going beyond the citizenship statement voters make when registering — before those votes are tabulated.
How did federal officials identify the 20,000 likely noncitizen voters?
According to the DOJ, Homeland Security Investigations and federal partners analyzed publicly available voter-registration records using multiple data-enrichment and verification methods. Newsmax's account of the complaint says citizenship agency records were compared against voter data, keeping only highly reliable matches checked against naturalization and death records.
Has a judge ruled on the DOJ's California lawsuit yet?
No. The lawsuit was filed on October 15, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, and the DOJ is seeking emergency relief. No ruling had been reported as of publication, so California's vote-counting procedures remain unchanged for now.
Will ordinary California voters' mail ballots still be counted?
Yes, for now. The lawsuit only concerns ballots from the roughly 20,000 voters on the federal list. California mails ballots to all 23.1 million registered voters, and nothing in the filing asks the court to stop counting anyone else's ballot.
When is the 2026 midterm election, and why does the timing matter?
The midterms are November 3, 2026 — less than three weeks after the lawsuit was filed — and will determine control of Congress. Voting is already underway in California, which is why the DOJ sought an emergency order and why state officials say the demand is so disruptive.
Sources
- USA Today: DOJ sues California over alleged non-citizens on voter rolls
- The Wall Street Journal: DOJ Sues California to Block Ballots from 20,000 Voters
- U.S. Department of Justice: United States Sues California After Determining More Than 20,000 Likely Noncitizens Are Registered to Vote
- Desert Sun: Could California lose ballots over DOJ non-citizen voter claims?
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