The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint against the state of California on Thursday, alleging that more than 20,000 likely illegal aliens are registered to vote in the Golden State, the department announced.
The 16-page complaint, directed at California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley Weber and Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan, states that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified the names by analyzing voter rolls alongside federal data.
According to the complaint, state law requires that every registered voter automatically be sent federal ballots. That means thousands of these “likely noncitizens” were mailed ballots in early October.
“State-facilitated voter fraud is unacceptable in the United States of America,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a DOJ statement. “If found responsible in a court of law, the State of California will have seriously undermined confidence in our electoral system and violated laws that protect our nation’s representative system of government.”
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in the statement that the analysis and review of the voter rolls is still ongoing. He called the situation “completely unacceptable,” noting that even a single noncitizen vote cancels out the vote of an American citizen and “undermines our elections.”
“DHS is committed to identifying unlawful voting, protecting the integrity of federal elections, and ensuring that only eligible American citizens elect America’s leaders,” Mullin said.
The complaint also points out that mail-in ballots include races for state, local and federal elections, and that California does not warn aliens that voting in a federal election is a federal crime.
In addition, the DOJ alleges that the state is lax in reviewing signatures on ballots, frequently counting ballots signed with an “X” rather than a name.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California said state officials had a chance to address the issue and declined.
“California election officials were given an opportunity to remove noncitizens from their voter rolls and to sequester ballots returned from suspected ineligible voters. They refused,” Essayli said in the DOJ statement. “We are taking California to federal court to demand that the votes of American citizens not be diluted by noncitizens.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta pushed back in a post on X, noting that mail ballots are already in most voters’ hands and Election Day is less than three weeks away. He argued that every count, recount, hand count, lawsuit and audit has found no widespread voter fraud in the U.S., called the Trump administration’s last-minute demands “meritless,” and said he looks forward to making the state’s case in court.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom also responded to the filing, calling it a “sad” and “desperate attempt” by President Donald Trump to use the DOJ to suppress California voters just three weeks before the November midterm elections.
“The courts have made clear that the federal government has no role in how a state carries out its election process, and now, in the middle of Californians voting, they have asked local officials — who do a damn good job defending democracy — to violate federal law,” Newsom said.
“A totally unprecedented request that should scare the hell out of every American,” he added. “We will continue to carry out free and fair elections in the Golden State — and call out this authoritarian as he tries every play in the dictator’s playbook.”
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