The Trump administration on Thursday sued California over its handling of voter fraud claims, asking a federal court to immediately bar the state from counting ballots from about 20,000 voters statewide \u2014 many in Los Angeles County \u2014 whom the administration alleges are \u201clikely noncitizens.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit is highly unusual<\/a>, particularly given that California voters have already begun voting in the Nov. 3 midterms via mail ballots, experts said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also \u201cmeritless,\u201d highly inappropriate and based on questionable federal data that have proved wildly inaccurate in other states<\/a>, state officials said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a sad, desperate attempt by Trump to use his politicized Justice Department to try to suppress California voters just three weeks before Election Day,\u201d Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cCourts have made clear the federal government has no role in running state elections. We will defend free and fair elections in the Golden State and call out every authoritarian attempt to undermine our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEvery count, recount, hand count, lawsuit, and audit has found that there\u2019s no widespread voter\u202ffraud\u202fin the U.S.,\u201d California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta wrote on X. \u201cThe Trump Admin\u2019s last-minute demands are meritless, and we look forward to making our case in court.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche, in his own statement, defended the lawsuit.<\/p>\n \u201cState-facilitated voter fraud is unacceptable in the United States of America,\u201d he said. \u201cIf found responsible in a court of law, the State of California will have seriously undermined confidence in our electoral system and violated laws that protect our nation\u2019s representative system of government.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawsuit states that \u201cas part of an investigation into unlawful voting,\u201d U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services conducted a \u201cmultiagency and multilevel review\u201d of state voter and federal citizenship data and determined with \u201chigh confidence\u201d that around 20,000 \u201clikely noncitizens\u201d are registered to vote in the state.<\/p>\n It then forwarded those names to Homeland Security Investigations, which conducted its own investigation and concluded the same, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n \u201cThis means that, consistent with state law, nearly 20,000 noncitizens in California have been sent a vote-by-mail ballot to participate in the federal election (or will receive one), with many addresses listed in Los Angeles County,\u201d the lawsuit alleges.<\/p>\n The lawsuit comes two days after<\/a> Acting Deputy Atty. Gen. Trent McCotter wrote to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Dean Logan, head of the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder\/County Clerk\u2019s office, giving them 48 hours to set aside the same ballots in order to investigate those voters\u2019 citizenship status.<\/p>\n McCotter had said the Trump administration would be forced to file for emergency relief in the courts if Weber and Logan did not comply.<\/p>\n The lawsuit \u2014 which also names Weber and Logan as defendants \u2014 comes about three months after Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin wrote his own letter to Weber, alleging that there may be more than 190,000 noncitizens registered to vote in California. <\/p>\n The lawsuit makes no mention of that prior estimate, or why Homeland Security\u2019s initial estimate was so much larger than its current estimate. It does say that USCIS identifying with \u201chigh confidence\u201d that a voter is a likely noncitizen \u201cmeans that the match between voter information on the voting roll and USCIS\u2019 internal records is strong and consistent based on multiple identifiers that support a strong identity link.\u201d<\/p>\n It also said, \u201cThe Federal Government notified California months ago that numerous noncitizens may be registered to vote in California. Despite knowing that California must send vote-by-mail ballots to every registered voter, the State made no serious attempt to work with the Federal Government to determine whether noncitizens are registered to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for more information as to how the 190,000 figure dropped to 20,000.<\/p>\n In a letter back to McCotter, Weber noted both figures and accused the Trump administration of pushing forward to disenfranchise voters at the last minute before the midterms based on shoddy data work and no certainty that those voters are ineligible. <\/p>\n