The U.S. Department of Justice has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, demanding confirmation on whether individuals identified as noncitizens were mailed ballots for the upcoming November 3 midterm election. Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney Trent McCotter stated in a letter sent Tuesday that if the state cannot verify the status of these voters by the Thursday deadline, the federal government will seek emergency relief in court.
The conflict centers on a list of names provided by federal officials to Los Angeles County election authorities, which the DOJ believes belong to noncitizens. This action follows a Supreme Court ruling in late September that allowed states to use the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program to check voter eligibility, reversing a lower court injunction.
What the Right Is Saying
The Trump administration and the Department of Justice assert that the review is necessary to uphold election integrity and enforce federal law regarding voter eligibility. Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney Trent McCotter framed the tight deadline as essential given the ongoing federal election, warning that failure to comply would force the United States to seek emergency judicial intervention.
Administration officials have pointed to the Supreme Court’s September 25 emergency order, which permitted the use of the SAVE system, as legal justification for their scrutiny of state voter rolls. The administration’s broader agenda, initiated by an executive order from President Donald Trump, aims to create a federal voter registration list and impose stricter restrictions on mail-in voting to combat alleged voter fraud.
What the Left Is Saying
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber rejected the federal demands, characterizing the DOJ's actions as an attempt to cause chaos and erode public trust in the election process. In a statement released Wednesday, Weber noted that the administration has not provided evidence to support its initial claims from July that approximately 190,000 noncitizens were registered to vote in California.
Weber argued that the DOJ is asking the state to "blindly trust this administration without any evidence or legal authority to justify its request." She emphasized that California has robust state laws requiring U.S. citizenship for voter registration and procedures to remove ineligible registrants. Weber stated her office remains committed to ensuring a fair election and highlighted that previous efforts to purge voter rolls using DHS data had mistakenly removed U.S. citizens in other states.
What the Numbers Show
The DOJ has set a specific deadline of 48 hours for California to respond, which expires on Thursday. The controversy involves a list of names provided to Los Angeles County officials, though the exact number of individuals on this specific list was not detailed in the initial report.
In July, President Trump and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed that California had 190,000 noncitizens on its voter rolls, a figure the state has disputed due to a lack of transparent methodology from federal agencies. The Supreme Court’s recent decision temporarily overturned a June ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan, who had blocked the use of the SAVE system, citing privacy concerns and the risk of erroneous voter removal.
The Bottom Line
This standoff marks the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s campaign to audit state voter rolls ahead of the midterms. The immediate consequence is a potential emergency lawsuit if California does not comply with the data verification request by Thursday.
The outcome may set a precedent for other states facing similar DOJ inquiries, such as New Jersey, which was given five days to hand over voter data following a separate noncitizen registration issue. The situation underscores the ongoing legal and political battle over the scope of federal authority to intervene in state-administered elections and the use of DHS data for voter verification.