US DOJ Gives California 48-Hours to Review/Address List of Noncitizens Who Received Ballots

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday gave California officials 48 hours to review a list of alleged noncitizen voters or face ‌legal action, according to two letters reviewed by Reuters, part of an unprecedented effort to find evidence of voter fraud ahead of next month’s elections, Reuters reported.

In the Oct. 13 letters, directed to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan, acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said the Justice Department provided officials in Los Angeles County with a “password-protected thumb drive” with the names of people ​the federal government “believes are likely noncitizens” and were sent mail-in ballots from California.

“For individuals whom you cannot independently confirm citizenship status, we request that you immediately instruct the appropriate elections official to segregate — not cancel — those individuals’ vote-by-mail ballots until their citizenship status can be determined,” McCotter wrote.

Noncompliance could lead to the DOJ seeking “emergency relief.”

DOJ officials described the list as covering “thousands” of possible noncitizens statewide, not limited to LA County, and stated that only U.S. citizens may vote in federal elections.

There are news reports stating that Logan is refusing to comply.

In December 2025, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division demanded un-redacted statewide voter registration lists from nearly all states and filed 31 federal lawsuits against 30 states plus Washington, D.C., seeking to compel production of the full data, including names, addresses, birthdates, driver’s license numbers, and partial or full Social Security numbers in many cases.

The Division sent requests for complete computerized statewide voter registration lists, and argued the data was needed to enforce the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), Help America Vote Act (HAVA), and Civil Rights Act of 1960. The stated goals included verifying list maintenance, identifying potential noncitizens or other ineligible registrants (via cross-checks with DHS’s SAVE database and other federal systems), and preventing vote dilution.

This should come as no surprise. In July, the Justice Department sent letters to chief election officials in all 50 states warning they could face criminal prosecution if they knowingly allowed noncitizens to remain on their voter rolls or cast ballots.

Approximately 16–18 states, predominantly Republican, voluntarily turned over the data. The rest largely resisted, producing a wave of litigation.

“The law is clear: states need to give us this information, so we can do our duty to protect American citizens from vote dilution,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Today’s filings show that regardless of which party is in charge of a particular state, the Department of Justice will firmly stand on the side of election integrity and transparency.”

According to the lawsuits, the Attorney General is uniquely charged by Congress with the enforcement of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which were designed by Congress to ensure that states have proper and effective voter registration and voter list maintenance programs. The Attorney General also has the Civil Rights Act of 1960 (CRA) at her disposal to demand the production, inspection, and analysis of the statewide voter registration lists.

UPDATE: At 5:21 pm Wednesday evening, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber issued a statement about the U.S. Department of Justice’s demand that she and LA County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan review and assess the list of noncitizens who received ballots for the upcoming November election.

Here is SOS Weber’s letter – she’s upset that the US DOJ gave her 48 hours to accomplish this, after more than 9 months to provide verified list maintenance, identified potential noncitizens or other ineligible registrants:

California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber, Ph.D., Issues Statement in Response to U.S. Department of Justice Letter

Sacramento, Calif. – Yesterday, the Secretary of State’s (SOS) office received a demand to review a list of an unknown number of people the “Federal Government believes are likely noncitizens”, but the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) did not provide the list to our office.

The USDOJ gave SOS 48 hours to obtain the list, investigate, and take action – just 21 days before the November 3 General Election. The Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder County/Clerk confirmed that the list was provided to their office on a protected thumb drive with the password indicated on a sticky note. Click here to view the U.S. DOJ Letter to LA County.

In July of this year, President Trump and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullen made (still) unsubstantiated claims that California had 190,000 non-citizens on its voter rolls. Given the many high-profile examples of states purging US citizens from their voter rolls based on DHS/SAVE data, SOS immediately requested written information about their methodology and data sources to back up their claims. They refused and provided California with nothing.

Now the USDOJ, under threat of “emergency” litigation, demands that California blindly trust this administration without any evidence or legal authority to justify its request.

“The USDOJ’s relentless efforts to unlawfully gain access to states’ protected voter data and purge voter rolls serve only to cause chaos and fuel public distrust in our elections,” said California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber, Ph.D. “California has robust state law requirements that only U.S. citizens can register to vote and that any non-eligible registrants are removed from the State’s voter rolls. My office and California election officials remain committed – as always – to ensuring a fair and smooth 2026 General Election.”

Click here to view the U.S. DOJ Letter to SOS.

The Globe will update this article as more information is available.