DOJ Gives California 48 Hours to Review List of Likely Noncitizen Voters or Face Emergency Action

The Justice Department has given California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County officials 48 hours to review a password-protected thumb drive containing names the department believes are likely noncitizens who were sent vote-by-mail ballots.

In a letter dated Tuesday, McCotter demanded that California withhold mail ballots from the listed individuals until citizenship is confirmed, segregate any ballots already returned, and not count them “until citizenship has been determined.” Failure to comply, the letter states, will leave the department “no choice but to seek emergency relief.”

“Allowing noncitizens to vote cancels citizen votes,” McCotter wrote. A DOJ spokesperson told reporters the action is meant “to ensure that noncitizens who automatically received ballots per California law do not vote in the upcoming federal election.” The department noted that federal law makes noncitizen voting in federal elections a crime.

The letter follows earlier DHS estimates that California may have had as many as 190,000 noncitizens on its rolls (later refined in other states) and ongoing DOJ pressure on multiple states for voter data. California has been a central player in litigation opposing federal election-integrity measures.

The move comes less than three weeks before the November 3 midterms, as early voting is underway in many jurisdictions. The department has emphasized that only American citizens may vote in federal elections and that states must not allow automatic ballot mailing to undermine that requirement.

Source: Just the News reporting on the McCotter letter and DOJ statements; contemporaneous coverage confirming the 48-hour deadline and thumb-drive delivery.