\u201cAt best, this litigation is a reckless political stunt,\u201d Bonta\u2019s filing<\/a> reads. \u201cAt worst, it threatens to disenfranchise thousands of Californians this election.\u201d<\/p>\n Bonta\u2019s filing came a day after federal prosecutors announced<\/a> they\u2019d charged 28 California green card holders for allegedly voting or registering to vote in violation of laws prohibiting noncitizens from participating in elections. In his filing, Bonta noted the arrests represent just .0001 percent of the 23 million registered voters in California.<\/p>\n In announcing those charges Monday, federal authorities said they also asked a judge to issue a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction that would force the state to segregate the 20,000 ballots. Bonta is urging the court not to issue the order.<\/p>\n The case has profound implications across the country with the midterm elections two weeks away. The U.S. Constitution gives states primary authority to independently conduct their elections. The Trump administration is testing whether it has the legal right to pause a state\u2019s vote counts based on a list of possible noncitizen voters that federal officials acknowledge may be inaccurate.<\/p>\n In his filing Tuesday, Bonta said the Trump administration has lost 26 different lawsuits as it sought unredacted voter rolls from states in its hunt for evidence to support President Donald Trump\u2019s unfounded voter fraud claims.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government has lobbed allegations of widespread voter fraud at the states, only for those allegations to crumble under scrutiny,\u201d Bonta wrote. \u201cAs one court recently noted, the federal government\u2019s citizenship records are \u2018known to be unreliable.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of Homeland Security recently claimed<\/a> that Nevada had nearly 16,000 noncitizens on its voter rolls. DHS sent the state the names of only 185 voters. Nevada officials confirmed they were all U.S. citizens. Similarly, in Pennsylvania<\/a>, DHS alleged the state had more than 14,000 noncitizen voters on its rolls, but prosecutors have only charged nine with illegally voting.\u00a0<\/p>\n Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Trent McCotter said Monday that the 20,000 possible noncitizen voters in California were enough \u201cto fill a small stadium,\u201d but he acknowledged that number could be an overcount.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere may be some names on there who it turns out ultimately are citizens,\u201d McCotter said. \u201cWe\u2019re not perfect, and that\u2019s why we\u2019ve asked California to cooperate with us.\u201d<\/p>\n McCotter said its list of possible noncitizens was based on public voter rolls the federal government obtained from California, which it then cross-referenced with \u201cother government databases, other public information.\u201d<\/p>\n McCotter said all 28 defendants charged Monday are on the list of 20,000 names, a number that he said was \u201cjust the floor\u201d and likely to grow.<\/p>\n Officials skeptical of federal methodology<\/p>\n State officials and independent election experts have been skeptical of the Trump team\u2019s methodology after federal authorities notified state officials in July that there could be as many as 190,000 noncitizen voters in California.\u00a0<\/p>\n Just the right amount of news<\/p>\n Just the right amount of news<\/p>\n Get California\u2019s most essential headlines without feeling overwhelmed.<\/p>\n Get California\u2019s most essential headlines without feeling overwhelmed.<\/p>\n In Bonta\u2019s filing, he noted that the California secretary of state had asked for a detailed accounting of how the federal government came up with that figure, but the Trump administration would not put it in writing. Instead, federal authorities proposed a virtual meeting, which state officials declined.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTo date, DHS has not provided evidence, documentation, or any other information to the Secretary\u2019s Office in support of its assertions that there \u2018may be\u2019 noncitizens registered to vote in California,\u201d Bonta wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf they wanted to cooperate, they have our number,\u201d McCotter told reporters Monday. \u201cThey know who to contact. \u2026 There\u2019s clearly just no motivation on their part.\u201d<\/p>\n Bonta noted in his filing that state officials have been complying with federal grand jury subpoenas seeking information on about 300 people that federal prosecutors are investigating.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t2026 Voter Guide<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Get ready for California\u2019s midterm election. This voter guide has everything you need to know<\/p>\n On Oct. 13, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to Secretary of State Shirley Weber informing her it had sent a thumb drive to Los Angeles County election officials containing \u201ca list of names the federal government believes are likely noncitizens who were sent a \u2026 ballot,\u201d according to Bonta\u2019s filing.<\/p>\n \u201cDOJ demanded that Secretary Weber \u2018review the list within 48 hours to determine whether any citizens are listed,\u2019\u201d and, for anyone whose citizenship the state couldn\u2019t confirm, to set aside their ballots or stop ballots from being mailed to them.<\/p>\n Weber refused, telling the federal government that voting was well underway, Bonta wrote.<\/p>\n The federal government sued California two days later.\u00a0<\/p>\n In its lawsuit filed last week, the justice department said it is \u201cnot practicable or feasible\u201d for the federal government to dig deeper into the thousands of names it had flagged as possible noncitizens before the 2026 election concludes, despite wanting California to do that in the middle of an election.<\/p>\n In declarations filed with the court Tuesday, Los Angeles County election officials said they\u2019ve done a preliminary analysis of a sampling of 200 of voters from the federal government\u2019s thumb drive. They said that many of the names on the list appear to be citizens, and that most had not voted and were not sent ballots.<\/p>\n David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, a nonprofit whose mission is to restore trust in the American election system, told reporters last week he expects California will prevail in the suit.<\/p>\n \u201cI expect the courts are not going to respond favorably to the DOJ acting with such a lack of diligence in this case, and apparently almost seeming to try to set California up,\u201d said Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department attorney. \u201cIf they had been honest with California back in July, and had an honest belief that the number of citizens\/noncitizens on the voter list were as they claim, they could have been transparent and shared that data. But they didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Did immigrants know they committed a crime?<\/p>\n Meanwhile, some of the 28 green card holders who were arrested Monday in the voter fraud sting told reporters that they didn\u2019t know they had done anything illegal; others said<\/a> they had no idea they had registered to vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n Prosecutors alleged that 22 suspects voted in at least one election including as recently as the June primary; five only registered to vote and one submitted a provisional ballot in 2020.<\/p>\n Kamlesh Shah, a 68-year-old immigrant from India, told The Sacramento Bee<\/a> in an interview that he voted in 2024 for Vice President Kamala Harris, but he thought he was allowed to since he had applied for citizenship after living in the country for three decades.<\/p>\n He visited a Sacramento County polling place and handed over his identification. An election worker gave him the OK and a ballot, Shah told the Bee.<\/p>\n \u201cI can hardly walk and talk,\u201d Shah told the Bee Monday at his Sacramento senior living facility. \u201cNow I have to face these charges.\u201d<\/p>\n Ana Dom\u00ednguez, 60, a native of El Salvador living in Long Beach, said she didn\u2019t remember registering to vote, The Los Angeles Times reported<\/a> Monday. She\u2019s accused of registering to vote in 2006 and then lying about it 20 years later on her immigration paperwork.\u00a0<\/p>\n Election experts say that such stories are common in voter fraud cases.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know from past experience that sometimes people register to vote accidentally, as when there is a mistake at the DMV,\u201d Rick Hasen, a UCLA School of Law professor, said Monday in a blog post<\/a>. \u201cThere is only a crime if the government can prove willful violations of federal law.\u201d<\/p>\n Hasen wrote that it was telling how few were charged on Monday, despite Trump and his allies spending years aggressively hunting for evidence of a massive election fraud conspiracy that they have not proved exists.<\/p>\n \u201cIf DOJ could prove many more cases, we would have heard about it,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThey\u2019ve been on an aggressive hunt nationally for such fraud. It\u2019s not surprising they\u2019ve found little because it is a small problem.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792544650_459_Asset-4.png\")
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