The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) gave California counties 48 hours to provide identifying information and asked them to set aside ballots tied to registrants whose citizenship officials cannot verify, escalating a pre-election dispute.
The letters seek personal identifying information and voter-registration records. They also ask counties to set aside ballots when officials cannot confirm a listed registrant’s citizenship.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles told the Los Angeles Times that 57 of California’s 58 counties received letters. Los Angeles County had received earlier notice.
The county letters are separate from the DOJ’s Oct. 15 lawsuit, which asks a federal judge to block counting ballots tied to more than 20,000 registrants while their citizenship is checked. The earlier case is described in EconoTimes’ coverage of California’s challenge to the federal ballot request.
The department says the list identifies people it considers likely noncitizens. Its complaint does not establish that anyone listed is ineligible to vote or has cast a ballot.
The DOJ says the action is intended to prevent noncitizens from voting. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said officials who knowingly count a ballot cast by a noncitizen face “legal jeopardy.”
California has challenged the list’s reliability in court. State filings warn that withholding ballots based on it could delay certification and prevent eligible citizens from having their votes counted.
The California Secretary of State reported 23,164,977 registered voters as of Sept. 4, 2026.
California sends mail ballots to all active registered voters, and the state’s challenge centers on whether a disputed federal list can be used to hold ballots from people whose citizenship has not been confirmed. The Associated Press reported that instances of noncitizen voting are rare and have not been shown to affect election outcomes.
A federal hearing on the DOJ lawsuit is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 27, according to the Associated Press.
