Trump administration threatens California officials if noncitizens vote in midterms
The Trump administration is escalating its fight with California ahead of next month's midterm elections, warning that local officials who process and tabulate ballots submitted by suspected noncitizen voters are putting themselves at risk of criminal investigation and potential prosecution.
What happened
On Friday, senior Justice Department officials sent a letter to Los Angeles County officials and copied California's Secretary of State warning that election workers who process or tabulate ballots from suspected noncitizens face criminal investigation and prosecution. The letter from acting deputy attorney general Trent McCotter stated that knowingly tabulating such ballots would make officials "aiders and abettors to a federal crime." The Justice Department lawsuit was filed after California officials were given, and did not meet, a 48-hour deadline to review a password-protected thumb drive that contained a list of 20,000 names that the federal government says are likely noncitizens who were sent ballots for the November 3 election. President Trump subsequently posted on Truth Social that California officials "will all go to jail for a long period of time." The Justice Department cited approximately 50 prosecuted cases of noncitizen voting out of over 227 million registered voters nationally in the 2024 presidential election.
Context
Noncitizen voting is described as extremely rare, with only a handful of cases discovered so far in this federal investigation. The letter puts election administrators in the position of facing potential criminal liability for performing routine ballot tabulation duties. California's Secretary of State disputed the federal government's claims, stating the administration provided no evidence supporting its identification of the 20,000 individuals as noncitizens. Legal experts quoted characterized the letter as an escalating threat and questioned its legal viability; one former Justice Department official noted courts have not previously accepted similar prosecutorial rationales against election officials. Several competitive congressional races in California districts could influence control of the U.S. House during Trump's presidency, making the state's election administration outcome strategically significant.
What's disputed
California officials contest whether the 20,000 individuals identified by federal agencies are actually noncitizens, stating the administration has provided no supporting evidence for the claim.