The U.S. Department of Justice told Orange County election officials on Friday it wants their help to determine the citizenship status of 1,754 people within 48 hours.
And for those whose citizenship cannot be determined, the federal government asked that election officials “segregate — not cancel — those individuals’ vote-by-mail ballots until their citizenship status can be determined,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in the letter obtained by The Orange County Register.
Federal prosecutors sent letters to county registrars across California on Friday demanding that local officials set aside and verify ballots that the Justice Department said may belong to noncitizens.
The letters are the latest escalation
The letters are the latest escalation in a legal battle between California and President Donald Trump’s Justice Department, which has recently focused on the state in its efforts to root out noncitizen voting ahead of the midterm elections. Data shows illegal voting by people who aren’t U.S. citizens is incredibly rare, difficult to prove and has not been shown to change the outcome of races.
In Orange County, the letter was hand-delivered to Clerk-Recorder Hugh Nguyen late Friday afternoon, instead of Bob Page, the county’s registrar of voters.
Page said county counsel would inform the Justice Department that it’s the registrar’s office that maintains voter registration records and administers elections, not the county clerk-recorder.
“County counsel is evaluating the requests in the USDOJ letter,” Page said.
The letter said the federal government had identified
The letter said the federal government had identified 1,754 “likely aliens” registered to vote in Orange County, although county officials had not yet reviewed the accuracy of that list by late Friday evening. It was not immediately clear if any of these people had actually received a ballot or attempted to vote.
There are more than 1.9 million registered voters in Orange County, according to the latest voter registration statistics from the California secretary of state.
Ballots were mailed to all registered voters at the beginning of the month, and voting is well underway, with less than two weeks left until Election Day.
I write to make unmistakably clear the legal
“I write to make unmistakably clear the legal implications of continuing to send vote-by-mail ballots to those people on the list or tabulating ballots cast by them until citizenship can be verified,” Essayli, a former Republican California Assemblymember, said in the letter.
It goes on to say that “anyone who aids, abets, counsels, induces, or procures the commission of a federal offense is equally liable. If persons knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens, they risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime.”
“The Department is not asking Orange County to adjudicate immigration status; it is asking it to temporarily set aside ballots from individuals whose eligibility is credibly in question — a standard election-administration practice implemented nationwide,” Essayli said in the letter.
Earlier this month, the federal government targeted Los
Earlier this month, the federal government targeted Los Angeles County and the California secretary of state’s office in a lawsuit that aimed to block them from counting the votes of roughly 20,000 people who it said are “likely” noncitizen voters. A hearing on the case is scheduled for Tuesday.
Earlier this week, the Justice Department charged 28 people from across California with illegally voting, registering to vote in federal elections, or making false statements in citizenship paperwork.
And last month, the Orange County registrar of voters received three subpoenas seeking voter records for 20 people, according to documents provided to The Orange County Register.
The Justice Department requested voter records from January
The Justice Department requested voter records from January 2024 to present, including registration information, addresses, history and methods of voting, and the registrant’s claims about their citizenship status. The information was sought in connection with “an official criminal investigation” conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a letter from Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Wheat said.
Friday’s letter asked elections officials to “commit to working with DOJ and DHS to identify who on the accompanying list is a citizen and who is not. That means sending us the nonpublic information associated with each suspected alien’s registration,” including voter applications, a driver’s license or state ID number.
According to the New York Times, some county registrars have already reported errors with the lists of potential noncitizens they received.
The registrar in Inyo County reported that neither
The registrar in Inyo County reported that neither of the two people on the list she was sent had been issued ballots or voted anywhere in California, according to records. And the registrar in Mendocino County said the list received there was wrong, the New York Times reported.
Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat and former California secretary of state, accused Trump and the federal government of “trying to interfere in California elections.”
“Trump’s DOJ has not provided any evidence for their claims of massive voter fraud. They’ve admitted that the data they point to is inaccurate and unreliable. No matter how many lawsuits they file or how many election officials they threaten, they do not have the authority to interfere,” Padilla said.
“Election officials: We have your back,” he said. “California: Your vote is your voice. Use it and let’s hold this administration accountable.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
