Trump administration sues California to block counting of alleged noncitizen mail ballots

The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against California election officials, seeking a judge's order to prevent the state from counting mail-in ballots cast by individuals identified as likely noncitizens in the upcoming midterm elections. The lawsuit was filed after the Justice Department claimed California officials had not complied with a 48-hour deadline to review a thumb drive containing a list of 20,000 names suspected of being noncitizens.

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber argued that the federal government did not provide evidence to support its claims about these individuals. She also pointed out that voting was already underway in the state and that California's practices were in compliance with federal law. The Justice Department alleges that California did not make a serious effort to verify the citizenship status of the individuals on the list.

Weber suggested that the federal government's outreach had not been collaborative, citing a previous incident where the Department of Homeland Security had claimed 190,000 noncitizens were registered to vote in California, without providing the methodology or data sources to verify this information. California Attorney General Rob Bonta stated that state officials would not comply with the federal government's requests to withhold ballots for the alleged noncitizen voters, citing a federal law that prohibits changes to voter rolls within 90 days of an election.