Justice Department Warns California Election Workers of Prosecution Over Ballots

The Justice Department warned California election officials on Friday that they could face criminal investigation and possible prosecution if they knowingly count ballots cast by people the federal government has identified as noncitizens. The Guardian and ABC News both reported on the letter, which came less than a month before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

The warning is the latest step in a widening dispute between the Trump administration and California. It arrived a day after the Justice Department sued the state over the issue.

What the letter says

Trent McCotter, the acting deputy attorney general, wrote that noncitizen voting in a federal election is a federal crime and that knowingly facilitating it is also unlawful. According to the Guardian, the letter was addressed to the Los Angeles County counsel's office, with copies to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan.

McCotter wrote that anyone who knowingly tabulates ballots from people federal agencies have identified as noncitizens risks becoming “aiders and abettors to a federal crime.” The Guardian noted that the copies effectively put the whole state on notice.

President Donald Trump shared the news on social media. Both outlets reported that he wrote that those involved would all go to jail for a long time.

The lawsuit and the thumb drive

According to the Guardian, the lawsuit seeks to stop California from counting mail-in ballots from people the federal government calls “likely” noncitizens until their immigration status is confirmed. ABC News described the suit differently, saying it centers on claims that the state has refused to purge noncitizens from its voter rolls.

Earlier in the week, McCotter sent letters to the Los Angeles County Clerk and the secretary of state. They asked California officials to review a password-protected thumb drive that the Justice Department said held names of potential noncitizens on the state's voter list. The Guardian said the list contained 20,000 names; ABC News said only that it held thousands.

The letters set a deadline of 48 hours, which ABC News called two days, to confirm a review was underway and that any ballots returned by those people were being set aside. The Guardian reported that California did not meet the deadline. The state mails ballots to all registered voters.

Weber has said the administration has provided no evidence that the people on the list are noncitizens, according to the Guardian. She also said the Justice Department's efforts to gain access to protected voter data and purge rolls cause chaos and fuel public distrust. ABC News reported that California called the request legally baseless and a last-minute effort to intervene in its election.

What the evidence shows on noncitizen voting

The Guardian reported that noncitizen voting is extremely rare. The Justice Department has charged about 50 people with voting as noncitizens, out of more than 227 million registered voters in the 2024 presidential election. ABC News said the department has promoted dozens of recent arrests of alleged noncitizens who voted in past cycles, but that those cases fall far short of numbers that could affect outcomes.

ABC News also noted that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned over the summer that election officials could face fines, penalties and possibly prison time.

Why it matters for voters and election workers

More than 23 million people are registered in California, according to the Guardian, and several competitive House races in the state could help decide which party controls the chamber for the last two years of Trump's term. Any disruption to how ballots are processed could affect how and when votes are counted there.

Legal experts quoted by both outlets were skeptical of the federal position. Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor, said the letter raises the stakes by threatening election officials with prosecution. Justin Levitt, a former Justice Department official who teaches at Loyola Law School, said courts have not accepted the department's arguments and that an attempted prosecution on this rationale would not hold up. He said election officials are equipped to resist and that the law favors them.

ABC News reported that experts overwhelmingly expect the lawsuit to fail, but worry that publicly questioning results could erode confidence in elections. Sean Morales Doyle of the Brennan Center told the network the administration appears to be “laying the groundwork to challenge results after Election Day.”

What comes next

The lawsuit is pending, and the election is Nov. 3. The Guardian reported that Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla of California, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Dick Durbin of Illinois wrote to Attorney General Todd Blanche on Friday. They asked the Justice Department to commit to not seizing ballots or other election materials before the results are certified.

Sources: The Guardian, ABC News