DOJ Warns California Counties Not to Count Ballots From Suspected Noncitizens as Appeals Court Orders State to Respond
The Justice Department on Friday sent letters to county election offices across California demanding they set aside mail ballots from voters the Trump administration considers likely noncitizens, warning officials of criminal exposure if they count them, the Los Angeles Times reported. Late Friday, a federal appeals court ordered the state to answer the department's emergency request by noon Saturday, according to Fox News Digital.
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles said 57 of California's 58 counties were served the letters, with Los Angeles County the exception because it had already received a notice, the Times reported. The letters give officials 48 hours to act, according to the newspaper.
What the DOJ Letters to California Counties Say
"The letters speak for themselves. Any election official who knowingly processes the ballot of a noncitizen is opening themselves to legal jeopardy," Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement quoted by the Times.
In one letter, U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian of the Northern District of California told Contra Costa County that it was receiving a "subset" of "407 likely aliens" from the statewide list of about 20,000 voters and asked the county to commit within 48 hours to working with the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security to identify who among them is a citizen, the Times reported. The letter sought nonpublic registration information, including Social Security numbers and copies of state IDs, according to the newspaper.
Contra Costa County's elections chief, Kristin Connelly, called the demand intimidating. "This threat is not helpful and is intended to intimidate," she said, according to the Times. Santa Cruz County Clerk Tricia Webber said two people with Justice Department credentials delivered a letter seeking the citizenship status of 81 people in her county within 48 hours. "This is not normal protocol for us," she said.
The Ninth Circuit Fight
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its order after the department filed an emergency request Friday, when U.S. District Judge David Carter had not ruled by the deadline the department sought, Fox News Digital reported. "This is an emergency," said the filing, signed by Attorney General Todd Blanche and Essayli. "Every minute of processing that occurs without segregating the ballots of suspected non-eligible voters causes untraceable disenfranchisement and dilution of the votes of United States citizens."
California officials asked the appeals court to dismiss the appeal in a filing Saturday, calling it "as unprecedented as it is meritless," according to the Times. State officials have argued that counties lack the authority and federal records needed to verify citizenship, and that ballots cannot be separated once they have been processed, Fox News Digital reported. A hearing before Carter remains scheduled for Tuesday.
The Justice Department's claim that the 20,000 voters are noncitizens has not been tested in court. The election is Nov. 3.
Image: First Street U.S. Courthouse, Los Angeles (file photo), Levi Clancy, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
Yossi Schmidt, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Digital Free Press
Hold Everyone Accountable.
Sources: Los Angeles Times, "'This is not normal': Feds demand California counties set aside 'likely' noncitizen ballots" (Oct. 23-24, 2026): https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-10-23/trump-administration-election-letters-california-counties ; Fox News Digital, "California must respond to DOJ's emergency request over ballots mailed to alleged noncitizens, court rules" (Oct. 24, 2026): https://www.foxnews.com/politics/california-must-respond-dojs-emergency-request-over-ballots-mailed-alleged-noncitizens-court-rules
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