ELX-005 · Elections · Pressure on election officials

Federal pressure on California over alleged noncitizen voters

Stage 4 of 5: Legal action · Lawsuits, subpoenas, charges · Last development 21 Oct 2026

On 13 October 2026, with mail ballots already sent on 5 October, acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter gave Los Angeles County and California's Secretary of State 48 hours to review a list of alleged noncitizens and to set aside their returned ballots. The list came on a thumb drive with its password on a sticky note; the county refused to open it on data-security grounds. On 15 October the Justice Department sued California, saying DHS had identified more than 20,000 likely noncitizens registered to vote. California calls the suit legally baseless.

DHS calls its figure a preliminary analysis. In Nevada, a DHS figure of 15,900 noncitizen registrants fell to 185 after manual review, and Nevada says all 185 are citizens.

People: Trent McCotter, Todd Blanche, Markwayne Mullin, Bill Essayli, Shirley Weber, Dean Logan
Reviewed by: Federal court (C.D. California)

Timeline

21 Oct 2026
The Justice Department's ballot suit is reassigned from Judge John Holcomb to Judge David O. Carter as related to earlier voter-roll litigation; Carter dismissed the department's suit for California's voter rolls in January. [13]
20 Oct 2026
California and Los Angeles County oppose the Justice Department's request to hold ballots. California says DOJ "cites no authority to support this unprecedented use of the Court's equitable power"; the county says "a ballot hold is no modest precaution when the Executive cannot say how or when it will end" and that 25.8% of the list's Los Angeles records it sampled show a US place of birth. DOJ describes its list as a floor of potential noncitizen voters. No judge or hearing yet. [11]
19 Oct 2026
The Justice Department asks the federal court in Los Angeles for an order, in time for the 3 November election, requiring California to set aside mail ballots from people it calls likely noncitizens and verify their citizenship before counting them. [9]
19 Oct 2026
The Justice Department charges 28 lawful permanent residents across California's four federal districts, mostly with false statements on naturalization forms and fraudulent voter registration, and says all are on the list of more than 20,000 names it gave the state. These are charges; defendants are presumed innocent. Gov. Newsom says the acting U.S. attorney admitted not all of those arrested may have voted. [10]
16 Oct 2026
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter writes to Los Angeles County, copying Secretary of State Weber, warning that officials who knowingly count ballots from people federal agencies identify as noncitizens risk federal prosecution. [4]
16 Oct 2026
Voting groups move to join the case on California's side: SIREN and Mi Familia en Accion file on 15 October, LULAC and the NAACP Los Angeles branch on 16 October. [6]
15 Oct 2026
Justice Department files suit against California over its voter list. [2]
15 Oct 2026
CHIRLA and a California voter file an emergency application in a federal court in Washington asking it to bar DHS and the Attorney General from using the alleged-noncitizen list and from directing that California ballots be set aside; no ruling yet. [8]
14 Oct 2026
Los Angeles County registrar says it will not open the thumb drive because it is not a secure medium. [1]
13 Oct 2026
Justice Department letters give California officials 48 hours to review the list and segregate ballots. [1]

Responses

Secretary of State Shirley Weber: Says the department's efforts "serve only to cause chaos and fuel public distrust in our elections" and that state law already requires removing ineligible registrants. [3]
Justice Department: Says it is not asking for a purge or to cancel votes, only for ballots from people on its list to be set aside. [3]
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber: Said the federal efforts "serve only to cause chaos and fuel public distrust in our elections." [5]
California Attorney General Rob Bonta: Says the administration "has provided us with no facts of any ineligible voters, just a conclusory statement with no evidence to back it" and expects the state to win. [9]

Sources

Cite this case

Public Trust Tracker. "Federal pressure on California over alleged noncitizen voters" (ELX-005). Last updated 21 Oct 2026. https://publictrusttracker.org/case/elx-005-federal-pressure-on-california-over-alleged-noncitizen/

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