20,000 noncitizens were mailed California ballots
The Justice Department sued California on Oct 15 to stop the counting of mail ballots from about 20,000 people that federal agencies call likely noncitizens. California officials say the federal government has not shown its evidence or methodology.
With voting already underway for the Nov 3 midterms, the federal government says about 20,000 likely noncitizens are registered in California and have been mailed ballots. The state disputes the number and the method behind it.
Key claims
- DOJ and DHS: a comparison of public voter files with federal immigration data identified more than 20,000 people who are likely noncitizens registered to vote in California.
- Attorney General Todd Blanche: "State-facilitated voter fraud is unacceptable in the United States of America."
- Secretary of State Shirley Weber: the federal government has provided no evidence for the 20,000 figure and is relying on "unverifiable information or methodology."
- Attorney General Rob Bonta: the federal estimate fell from 190,000 over the summer to 20,000 now, and the demand violates a federal law against changing voter rolls within 90 days of an election.
What the evidence says so far
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin's statement in the DOJ release calls the work a "preliminary analysis" and says the review remains ongoing. The lawsuit asks a judge to stop the counting of these ballots until citizenship is determined. It does not claim that each person has been confirmed as a noncitizen.
Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan said the list arrived on a password-protected thumb drive with a handwritten password, which he did not consider a secure device. The secretary of state's office said the password was on a sticky note.
Weber cited a Nevada case in which nearly 16,000 people flagged as possible noncitizens were all found to be citizens.
CBS reports that the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has filed 31 suits seeking voter rolls, has lost 26 and has not won any. AP reports that the department has charged about 50 people this year with voting as noncitizens. More than 227 million people were registered to vote in 2024.
Sources
Source notes
The DOJ release is a statement by a party to the case, as are the statements by California officials. The full complaint PDF was seen only as a search excerpt, so details attributed to it here come from the press release and news reports. The federal list and its method have not been made public, and that is the main open gap.