Both Sides: Should California hold mail ballots DOJ says went to noncitizens?
The Justice Department gave California until noon Eastern Thursday to review a list of people it believes are noncitizens sent mail ballots, and to set those ballots aside. State and Los Angeles County officials say the demand lacks legal authority and verified data.
AI-assisted · US Brief desk · Sources listed below
What happened
In Oct. 13 letters, Acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter told California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan to review a list of possible noncitizens within 48 hours. He asked them to "segregate — not cancel" the vote-by-mail ballots of anyone whose citizenship they cannot confirm. The list came on a password-protected thumb drive. The DOJ said it would seek emergency court relief if the demands were not met by noon Eastern on Oct. 15.
Why it matters
Californians are already voting in the Nov. 3 midterms. The fight tests how far federal officials can go in policing state voter rolls weeks before an election, and it could set up court challenges after the vote.
More context
How outlets framed it: Fox News called it a threat of "emergency legal action" over "suspected noncitizen voters" and quoted a DOJ spokesperson that thousands of possible noncitizens are on California's rolls. NBC News stressed that federal law bars systematic voter-roll changes within 90 days of an election. CBS News noted the DOJ has lost 26 of its voter-roll lawsuits against states and cited a Reuters analysis on clerical errors.
The case for the DOJ's request: Only citizens may vote in federal elections, and noncitizen voting is a federal crime. "This should not be controversial," a DOJ spokesperson said. The department says it is asking to hold ballots, not purge voters, and it has charged more than 100 people with voting-related crimes under President Trump.
The case against: Weber said the DOJ never sent her office the list and lacks legal authority for the request. Logan said he would not open the drive because it is not a secure medium, and that removing voters must rest on "verifiable information, not assertions of unconfirmed data matching." Attorney General Rob Bonta called claims of widespread fraud "a lie." Studies cited by CBS find noncitizen voting is rare.
Where they split: whether a federal data match is reliable enough to hold a voter's ballot, and whether Washington can order a state to act on it. What would change the story: a court ruling on the DOJ's emergency request, or the department releasing how many people are on the list and how they were identified.
Sources across the spectrum This story cites right-leaning and mainstream or left-leaning outlets. Every source is listed below.
3 listed sources
References listed by US Brief; a source count is not a verification score.
Editorial sourcing notes
Sourcing lean: Fox News (right-leaning) and NBC News and CBS News (mainstream) all reviewed or quoted the same DOJ letters. Fox led with the DOJ's demand and deadline; NBC and CBS led with the legal limits and the department's court record. The DOJ has not said how many people are on the list or shown that any of them voted.
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