A letter with a 48-hour deadline

A letter sent on Tuesday, 13 October, and signed by Trent McCotter of the Justice Department was addressed to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber. Federal officials also gave the Los Angeles County registrar of voters a password-protected USB drive, with the password written by hand on a separate note. The drive held names the government believes are likely noncitizens who were sent mail ballots for the 3 November election, but the letter does not say how many people are on it. California was given 48 hours to determine whether anyone on the list is a citizen. For anyone whose status cannot be independently verified, local officials would have to set aside their mail ballots and withhold ballots from people who had not yet received them, and the letter warned of legal action if the deadline passed.

The letter spelled out what would follow if the state could not comply in time:

“If this process cannot be implemented by then, given the ongoing federal election, the United States will have no choice but to seek emergency relief.”

Los Angeles County refuses to open the drive

Dean Logan, the county's registrar of voters, confirmed in a statement that his office had received the letter and the drive. He said he did not consider a USB drive a secure device and had not opened any of its files. Logan argued that canceling a voter registration requires verifiable information rather than what he called assertions of unconfirmed data matching. He said his office was working with the secretary of state's office and the state attorney general to decide how to proceed.

On Wednesday, 14 October, Weber said in a statement that the Justice Department had not given her office the list of voters. She accused the department of trying to gain unlawful access to protected state voter data and of fueling public distrust in elections.

Lawsuit filed in federal court

On Thursday, 15 October, the Justice Department sued the state of California, Weber and Logan in federal court in the central district of California. The suit asks a judge to bar the state from counting mail ballots from voters the Department of Homeland Security has identified as likely noncitizens, until their citizenship can be determined. It concerns more than 20,000 such voters and asks California to set aside their ballots and verify citizenship independently or with federal help.

Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, responded on social media with a sharp rebuke of the administration.

“This is a sad, desperate attempt by Trump to use his politicized Justice Department to try to suppress California voters just three weeks before Election Day.”

Disputed figures and past claims

The administration's numbers have shifted. Administration officials have contended that as many as 190,000 noncitizens are on California's voter rolls, but the lawsuit relies on a smaller figure and says the department is highly confident that more than 20,000 California voters are noncitizens. Weber has said the Department of Homeland Security has not explained its methodology.

Administration officials, as many as190,000

Justice Department lawsuit, more than20,000

Administration officials, as many as

190000

Justice Department lawsuit, more than

20000

Data from the article text

Similar claims have fallen apart before. In September, election officials in Nevada examined a list of 185 names that homeland security officials had provided and found that every person on it was a lawful citizen. The department had first claimed that up to 16,000 noncitizens were on the rolls in Nevada before lowering its estimate to 185. Over the past 18 months the administration has sued California and other states over voter rolls and has lost resoundingly in court. President Trump has claimed that hundreds of thousands of people have voted illegally, while reviews by election officials and criminal investigators have found only small numbers in each election cycle. The Justice Department says it has charged about 90 people with various election irregularities so far, including 50 suspected of voting without being citizens.

What comes next

The lawsuit asks a federal judge to act before the 3 November midterm elections, so a ruling could arrive while ballots are still being cast. Logan's office has said it is working with state officials on how to proceed with the list. The dispute now runs through the courts, with the central question being whether the federal figures can be verified before any ballots are set aside.