In brief
The Justice Department has sent letters to California, Washington, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Nevada demanding the removal of ballots from roughly 20,000 voters it deems likely noncitizens, and has sued California to block the counting of those ballots. State officials have rebuffed the requests, citing robust safeguards. Legal challenges have already been rejected by federal courts, but the dispute underscores lingering tensions over voter eligibility. Uncertainties remain over the lists’ impact on the 2026 midterms and the ultimate outcome of ongoing litigation.
The Trump administration has furnished election officials in five states—California, Washington, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Nevada—warrants for removing roughly 20,000 ballots that it believes belong to noncitizens. Those who claim to be U.S. citizens are summoned to verify their status before their votes are counted, according to a Justice Department document seen by Reuters. The administration’s letter to California, dated October 13, demanded the state refrain from counting votes from the identified voters, warning officers of criminal liability.
Trump amplified the warning on his social media platform, stating:
They will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!
Donald Trump.
In response, the election officials of those states have denounced the demand and denied the removal of any ballots. California’s attorney general has maintained that the state’s voter file integrity is maintained by a variety of verification steps, and Washington and Pennsylvania officials have said their systems already check citizenship status before permits each voter’s registration. The Justice Department subsequently filed a lawsuit in a federal court seeking to enjoin California from casting any vote from the list of 20,000 purported noncitizens.
Federal courts have already rejected numerous requests to block noncitizen ballots in other states. The current lawsuit against California proceeds amid a broader backdrop of legal challenges that race through the courts. A Reuters investigation in July found only 129 federal cases of alleged noncitizen voting since 1996, many of which appeared to stem from confusion or administrative missteps rather than intentional fraud, raising questions about the overall urgency of the Justice Department’s campaign.
Despite the dispute, the Justice Department has increased its prosecution of alleged noncitizen voters. “Close elections are not rare, and every illegal ballot cancels out the vote of an American citizen,” a Department spokesperson, Kiersten Pels, said in a statement. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin recently asserted—without supporting evidence—that his agency had uncovered 300,000 noncitizens on voter rolls during a Fox News interview. Both figures are held by the administration but remain unverified in public record.
The contention over whether removing ballots identified on the list could shift the margin in any particular race is still being debated. The White House has repeatedly described noncitizen voting as a “significant problem” that requires aggressive enforcement to sustain election integrity, while state governments have insisted that existing safeguards are durable and portable. The resolution of the lawsuit might be decided by a federal judge whose decision could be appealed, potentially setting a precedent for future elections.
The uncertainties that the sources already name are that it remains unclear whether the Justice Department’s list will actually change vote tallies in any of the targeted states, how the enforcement of potential ballot vetoes will play out in court, and whether the federal appeals process will ultimately overturn or uphold the current rulings. The outcome will likely hinge on both the legal merits of the claims and the political calculus of state officials who are fully prepared to maintain the existing record of voter rolls until further verification proves otherwise.
