The Trump administration has given California election officials 48 hours to verify the citizenship of thousands of registered voters flagged by federal authorities or withhold their ballots pending verification, threatening emergency legal action less than three weeks before the November 3 midterm elections.
In letters reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter demanded that officials check a federal list of suspected noncitizens and segregate ballots already issued to voters whose eligibility remained unverified.
California officials challenged the demand, questioning both the reliability of federal records and the Justice Department's authority to impose last-minute changes to election procedures.
Los Angeles County election chief Dean Logan said his office had not opened a password-protected USB drive containing the federal list because of concerns about transferring sensitive voter information securely.
Election experts also warned about erroneous citizenship flags. In Nevada, a federal list of nearly 16,000 suspected noncitizen voters was eventually narrowed to 185 people, all of whom were confirmed to be U.S. citizens.
The ultimatum follows months of federal scrutiny of California's elections. According to a September Los Angeles Times investigation, Los Angeles County received at least three federal grand jury subpoenas since March seeking records on dozens of people suspected of voting without citizenship.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin separately claimed that as many as 190,832 noncitizens were registered in California. Secretary of State Shirley Weber disputed the figure, saying federal officials had provided insufficient evidence to assess it.
The September report also described a whistleblower allegation that Homeland Security employees were expected to identify five suspected illegal voters per hour using questionable data. DHS rejected the allegations, saying its investigations were conducted professionally.
The dispute unfolds alongside intensified immigration enforcement in California as The Sacramento Bee reported last week that ICE was launching a 45-day statewide operation, internally called "Operation Safe California," beginning around San Diego and potentially extending through Los Angeles to San Francisco.
Citing reporting by the Washington Examiner, the newspaper said ICE agents had reportedly been instructed to arrest immigrants regardless of criminal history. An unnamed source described the directive as allowing officers to "go after anybody."
Governor Gavin Newsom accused Trump of using immigration raids to intimidate communities ahead of the election. "Trump is using mass deportations to TERRORIZE diverse communities out of legally voting," Newsom wrote on X. The administration had not publicly announced the operation.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) October 8, 2026This is exactly what I warned would happen last year.
Trump is using mass deportations to TERRORIZE diverse communities out of legally voting — ordering his secret police to “go after everybody.”
Donald, your campaign of fear will FAIL. The American people will NOT be…
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