Federal voter-record subpoenas now sit alongside ballot-segregation requests in California and Washington, where officials dispute federal lists affecting election administration before the Nov. 3 vote.
In its Oct. 28 review, Reuters counted more than 100 subpoenas issued by the Trump administration to state and local election officials across at least 13 states. At least 49 were issued under grand jury authority. The requests ranged from records about individual voters to full local voter rolls. Reuters said most came in the three months before publication, although some went back to early 2026.
The Los Angeles Times separately reported Sept. 29 that records showed at least five grand jury subpoenas sent to Los Angeles County election officials. Four sought individual voter records dating from Jan. 1, 2020, onward; another concerned one voter.
A March 31 executive order put federal election-eligibility investigations among the attorney general’s priorities, including prosecutions when appropriate. In an Oct. 15 complaint, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said federal agencies had identified more than 20,000 people it considered likely noncitizens who had been sent vote-by-mail ballots. The department asked a court to require California to hold those ballots until citizenship could be verified.
Los Angeles County disputed the list in an Oct. 20 court filing. County officials reviewed 200 records against voter files; 38.9% of entries with meaningfully reported birthplace information indicated U.S. birth. The sample came from a federal roster containing 7,035 entries with county addresses. It does not establish the citizenship of everyone on the federal list.
In Washington, federal prosecutors said Oct. 26 they had identified more than 400 people they described as noncitizens who had registered and voted in multiple elections. They asked the state to set aside ballots linked to them. Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said the federal data system often flags U.S. citizens as noncitizens and pointed to a record dated to 1994. The competing accounts do not resolve each person’s status. The administration says its goal is to protect eligible citizens’ votes.
Federal law bars noncitizens from voting in elections that include federal candidates, with a narrow exception for separate nonfederal contests permitted by state or local law. The Federal Election Commission says election administration is chiefly handled by state and local authorities. Reuters reported that election officials and lawyers warned the subpoenas could burden local offices and fuel challenges after close results. A Ninth Circuit panel dismissed DOJ’s emergency appeal in the California case Oct. 26 because the district court had not ruled. ABC News reported that U.S. District Judge David O. Carter said at an Oct. 27 hearing that he intended to appoint a special master to review how the federal list was compiled. The next federal general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
