California Officials Push Back on Justice Department Noncitizen Voter List

California’s attorney general accused the Justice Department on Saturday of using the law as a political weapon after federal prosecutors asked state election officials to check a list of about 20,000 ballots tied to suspected noncitizens within 48 hours, The Guardian reported.

The request came less than two weeks before the midterm elections. California officials say the list is unsupported and could affect eligible citizens. The Justice Department says it is trying to protect the integrity of the vote. An appeals court is scheduled to hear the legal fight over the matter on Tuesday.

What the Justice Department is asking for

According to The Guardian, federal prosecutors asked California’s county election officials to commit to cooperating so that the Department of Homeland Security can quickly verify citizenship status. In a statement, the Justice Department said that with the counties’ help, California could hold the most secure election in its history.

The department also announced charges against 28 foreign nationals who are accused of fraudulently registering to vote. Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney, said the arrests supported the department’s long-running claim that California is mailing ballots to noncitizens and resisting a federal law that makes it a crime for them to vote. The defendants are lawful permanent residents, who have legal status in the country but are not allowed to vote.

The Guardian noted that noncitizen voting is extremely rare. It also reported that the Justice Department has stepped up prosecutions of people accused of voting illegally while not being U.S. citizens as the midterms approach, part of a wider Republican push against alleged voter fraud, especially among undocumented immigrants.

What California officials say

Attorney General Rob Bonta said the Justice Department was acting at President Donald Trump’s direction. Speaking to MS Now, he called the move an improper attempt to turn the law against the administration’s opponents.

Bonta also questioned the evidence behind the list. At a recent news conference, he said federal officials had provided only names, with no explanation of why those people would be ineligible, and he said his office would gladly review any such information if it existed. He said none had been supplied.

Election workers in California have warned that the directive could strip eligible citizens of their right to vote. Officials in Los Angeles said this week that a high percentage of the people on the list were born in the United States.

Gov. Gavin Newsom took to social media to say that the lists sent to counties included people who had never voted, as well as voters who belong to other counties. He described the effort as an attempt to manufacture claims of widespread fraud. Rep. Pete Aguilar, who represents part of San Bernardino County, said voter intimidation has no place in a democracy.

The legal fight so far

The Justice Department sent letters on Friday, according to The Guardian. Some state officials took no action on them, pointing to the closeness of the election, and that set off a legal battle with the department. The appeals court is expected to take up the dispute Tuesday.

What’s at stake for voters

For California voters, the practical question is whether anyone who is eligible could be wrongly flagged as a noncitizen so close to Election Day. Local officials say the list may include U.S.-born citizens, and they say they have not been shown evidence that the people named are ineligible. The Justice Department, for its part, says verification is needed to make sure only citizens vote.

The dispute also tests how far federal prosecutors can press state and county election offices for quick action just before an election. Those offices run the voting process, and some have declined to act on the department’s letters while the case is pending in court.

The outcome of Tuesday’s hearing could shape what, if anything, counties must do before ballots are counted. The Guardian’s reporting does not say which counties received the lists or how many names each contained, and the Justice Department has not publicly detailed the basis for the roughly 20,000 names in the reports cited here.

Around Prague, based on reporting by The Guardian