The Trump administration has issued a stark warning to California election officials, raising the possibility of criminal charges if they count ballots cast by people suspected of being noncitizens. The threat comes just weeks before Election Day, as a mounting dispute over voting rights intensifies.
In a forceful letter sent Friday, the Justice Department warned that election workers who knowingly process ballots from individuals identified by federal authorities as noncitizens could face a federal criminal investigation.
The extraordinary warning followed a lawsuit filed by the administration against California one day earlier. The case seeks to prevent the state from counting mail-in ballots linked to approximately 20,000 suspected noncitizens.
“The legal consequences for either facilitating or ignoring a federal crime are significant. Noncitizen voting in a federal election is a federal crime — and knowingly facilitating such conduct is equally unlawful,” Trent McCotter, the Justice Department’s acting deputy attorney general, wrote in the letter obtained by the Associated Press.
McCotter issued an even more pointed warning to officials overseeing the vote count.
“If persons knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens, they risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime,” he wrote.
The letter was sent to the Los Angeles County Counsel’s office, with copies provided to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan.
The latest escalation comes as the Trump administration intensifies its campaign against alleged noncitizen voting ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
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Federal officials said they had identified about 20,000 likely noncitizens who received mail-in ballots in California, where ballots are automatically sent to every registered voter.
The Justice Department gave California officials 48 hours to examine a password-protected thumb drive containing the names of those individuals.
After California did not meet that deadline, the administration filed suit Thursday. It is asking a federal court to halt the counting of the ballots until the citizenship status of the voters can be confirmed.
“California election officials were given an opportunity to remove noncitizens from their voter rolls and to sequester ballots returned from suspected ineligible voters. They refused,” said LA’s top federal prosecutor, Bill Essayli.
“We are taking California to federal court to demand that the votes of American citizens not be diluted by noncitizens,” he added.
Weber has rejected the allegations, saying federal authorities have offered no evidence to support their claims.
The confrontation is part of a wider federal effort that has involved requests for sensitive voter data from states, including birth dates, home addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.
In July, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed that up to 250,000 noncitizens were registered to vote across California, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. State election officials responded to the allegations with skepticism.
In Nevada, federal authorities initially identified 1,500 alleged noncitizen voters. A later review, however, found that none of those listed were registered noncitizens.
The Justice Department has charged about 90 people this year with various election-related offenses, including 50 accused of illegally voting as noncitizens.
