Trump sues California to prevent counting 20,000 voters' ballots

The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against the state of California and two local election officials, seeking a court order to prevent the counting of approximately 20,000 mail-in ballots until the citizenship status of the voters is confirmed. The Justice Department alleges that California is knowingly allowing noncitizens to vote in federal elections, a claim the administration says undermines confidence in the electoral system.

Attorney General Todd Blanche stated in a press release that state-facilitated voter fraud is unacceptable in the United States. Blanche argued that if found responsible in court, California would have violated laws protecting the nation's representative system of government. According to the lawsuit, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the investigative arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement identified the potentially ineligible voters by cross-referencing agency data with records from the Social Security Administration and the State Department.

However, lists of potential noncitizens on voter rolls created by the administration have previously been found to be less than accurate in Nevada, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The Justice Department instructed Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, to verify the citizenship of more than 20,000 voters within 48 hours, providing a password-protected thumb drive containing the list. Logan received the letter alongside California's top election official two days prior to the lawsuit.

Logan responded in a social media statement that maintaining accurate voter registration records is a fundamental responsibility of his office. He stated that the county's response will be grounded in compliance with federal and state voter registration laws and procedures. Federal law restricts systematic voter roll maintenance within 90 days of a federal election, a rule intended in part to prevent eligible voters from being removed shortly before voting. This litigation follows earlier legal attempts by the federal government to obtain California's voter rolls beyond public lists, which have failed in court.

Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the move as a desperate attempt to use a politicized Justice Department to suppress California voters three weeks before Election Day. Newsom stated that courts have made clear the federal government has no role in how a state carries out its election process. He accused local officials of being asked to violate federal law while Californians are in the middle of voting.