The U.S. federal government sued California on Thursday, and the dispute between the two parties over how to prevent non-U.S. citizens from voting in federal elections by mail escalated further.
The judge ordered in this lawsuit that California officials stop counting mail ballots "that may come from non-citizens" in the upcoming federal elections until the citizenship of the voters can be determined.
The U.S. Department of Justice has requested a judge to order that mail ballots sent by voters in the state who have been "identified by the federal government as possibly non-citizens" be set aside separately, and their citizenship status verified before counting.
Non-citizens are prohibited from participating in federal elections in the United States.
The lawsuit filed in the U.S. Federal District Court for Los Angeles occurred two days ago. Trent McCott, acting as the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, requested in a letter to California Secretary of State Sherry Weber that California confirm within 48 hours whether any individuals on a list that the Department of Justice believes may be non-citizens and for whom ballots were received from the November 3 election are actually American citizens.
The Ministry of Justice had previously provided a USB drive containing the relevant names to officials from Los Angeles County.
In the letter, McCott informed Weber that the state needed to notify local election officials to isolate and handle the mailed ballots until the citizenship of the voters could be confirmed; for those who had not yet received their ballots, no further ballots should be sent to them.
"If by then you are unable to implement this process, and considering that federal elections are underway, the United States will have no choice but to seek emergency relief."McCott wrote in the letter.
In a statement on Thursday, Weber's office stated: "In July of this year, President Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Mark Wayne Morgan claimed that there were 190,000 non-citizens on the California voter registry, but this claim has not been substantiated to this day."
The Weber Office stated: "In light of several high-profile cases that showed states had removed American citizens from the voter rolls based on DHS/ SAVE data, the State Secretary's Office immediately requested written explanations for their methods and sources of data to support their claims. They refused and provided no information to California."
The statement also stated: "Now, the United States Department of Justice is threatening with 'emergency' lawsuits, demanding that California blindly trust the current government without any evidence or legal authority to justify their requests."
Webb also stated on Thursday that the Department of Justice 'continuously attempts to illegally obtain protected voter data from various states and to clean up voter rolls, which will only create chaos and exacerbate public distrust in our elections.'
She also stated that California "has sound state laws requiring that only U.S. citizens can register to vote, and any registrants who do not meet the qualifications will be removed from the state's voter rolls."
"I, along with the California Election Officials Office, will continue as always to be committed to ensuring that the 2026 general election is fair and proceeds smoothly."Weber said.
This is breaking news, and updates will continue to follow.
