Authored by Tom Gantert via The Epoch Times,
The U.S. Department of Justice on Oct. 13 sent letters to California election officials demanding a review within 48 hours of registered voters it suspects are noncitizens and asking officials to set aside their mail ballots until their citizenship status can be determined.
If the prescribed course of action wasn't followed by Oct. 15 at noon ET, the letter stated the federal government would seek "emergency relief."
"This should not be controversial, as the criminal statute is clear: Only American citizens may vote in federal elections. It is a federal crime for noncitizens to vote in U.S. elections, and the DOJ is asking California to ensure that is not occurring," a DOJ spokesperson said in an email to The Epoch Times.
The DOJ claims there are thousands of potential foreign nationals not eligible to vote that have been identified as registered voters in California.
Dean Logan, registrar for Los Angeles County, posted a copy of the DOJ's letter on the county clerk website.
In the letter to Los Angeles County, the DOJ stated that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin informed the California secretary of state that there are "likely numerous noncitizens" registered to vote in the federal election in California.
"Accompanying this letter is a password-protected thumb drive with a list of names of people the Federal Government believes are likely noncitizens who were sent a vote-by-mail ballot from California to participate in the November election," the letter stated.
The letter requested that L.A. County review the list within 48 hours. For any individuals the county could not independently verify as citizens, the letter requested election officials be instructed to "segregate - not cancel" those vote-by-mail ballots until their citizenship status could be determined.
If the county didn't comply with the DOJ request, the letter stated, "the United States will have no choice but to seek emergency relief."
Logan said his office has not accessed the drive because doing so would conflict with "established data privacy and information security protocols." He said his office does not consider the device a secure medium and said the letter does not specify the number of individuals involved or describe the information contained in the records.
"Maintaining accurate voter registration records is a fundamental responsibility of our office," Logan said in a statement. "Federal and state laws are clear on how voter eligibility is established - and any action to remove a voter from eligibility must be based on verifiable information, not assertions of unconfirmed data matching."
Logan said that with the 2026 general election underway, his department is focused on administering a safe, secure, accurate, and transparent election.
"We will continue following established legal requirements and verification procedures while protecting the rights of every eligible voter," Logan stated.
Gov. Gavin Newsom's press office posted Wednesday on X in response to the letter.
"With this letter, the Trump administration is demanding that California election officials voluntarily violate federal law enshrined by Congress. Completely unacceptable and inappropriate for the feds to do - especially with their track record," the statement said, not specifying what federal law would be violated.
The California Secretary of State also criticized the DOJ's letter in a response on X.
"The US DOJ'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," the statement said. "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."