![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/260602-PRIMARYVOTERVOX-20-BL-KQED.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe county executive called federal demands to set aside hundreds of ballots and vet the voters\u2019 citizenship \u201centirely inappropriate\u201d just days before the Nov. 3 election.<\/p>\n
Oct 26, 2026<\/p>\n
Updated 5:27 pm PT<\/p>\n
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A polling place at SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco on June 2, 2026.\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n
Santa Clara County officials on Monday rejected the Trump administration\u2019s demand to set aside hundreds of ballots and vet the voters\u2019 names amid an unprecedented investigation<\/a> of purported noncitizens on county voter rolls.\u00a0<\/p>\n The defiant response comes as a legal battle between California and the federal government over the voter rolls escalates just over two weeks before Election Day.\u00a0<\/p>\n The U.S. Department of Justice had sent letters to all of California\u2019s county registrars this month directing them to provide information verifying the flagged voters\u2019 citizenship and hold off on counting ballots from those voters in the meantime.<\/p>\n A district court judge in Los Angeles will hear the federal government\u2019s request to expedite enforcement of the demand on Tuesday, after a federal appeals court ruled Monday that it was too soon for the higher court to step in.\u00a0<\/p>\n Echoing the response of local officials<\/a> facing similar demands across the state, Santa Clara County Executive James Williams said the DOJ had no authority to conscript local election officials in such an effort.<\/p>\n \u201cA letter like that, and one that makes threats to election officials concerning criminal and other legal sanctions, is deeply disturbing and entirely inappropriate,\u201d Williams said in an interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Trump administration is ramping up its pressure on California in what federal officials have called a campaign to root out potential noncitizens registered to vote. Earlier this month, the Justice Department sued California and Los Angeles County<\/a> elections officials over the list of voters who the federal government \u201cbelieves are likely noncitizens.\u201d<\/p>\n In a rare Sunday hearing, lawyers for the federal government asked the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to halt ballot counting for 20,000 voters on that list. Election experts questioned the legality of the Trump administration\u2019s move, which came as nearly 3 million Californians have already cast a ballot in the Nov. 3 midterm election.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat they say they\u2019re trying to do is enforce a federal law that makes it a crime for noncitizens to vote in federal elections,\u201d Rick Hasen, director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at the UCLA School of Law, said on KQED\u2019s Forum<\/a>. \u201cWhat I think they\u2019re actually trying to do is to project the image that there\u2019s a widespread voter fraud problem in this country, and to kind of mimic the claims that President Trump has made, that noncitizens are voting in droves and affecting the outcome of elections.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In letters to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office on Sunday, Williams and Santa Clara County Counsel Tony LoPresti argued that state and federal law prohibit the county\u2019s registrar of voters from complying with the federal government\u2019s request.\u00a0<\/p>\n They argued that the Department of Justice has not presented the county with a warrant for the Social Security numbers and driver\u2019s license information they are seeking. And they cited the National Voter Registration Act, which prevents systematic purges of ineligible voters from registration rolls within 90 days of an election.\u00a0<\/p>\n Williams also questioned how the federal government produced the list of 902 names that it categorized as \u201clikely aliens\u201d on the county\u2019s voter rolls, echoing doubts cast by California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and others over the data and methodology behind the federal investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere were three duplicates on the first page alone; the data looks very messy,\u201d Williams said. \u201cA significant number of random names appear not to be voters in Santa Clara County at all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In Sunday\u2019s hearing before the 9th Circuit, attorneys with the DOJ called the probe an effort to prevent noncitizens from violating federal law by casting a ballot \u2014 and accused California officials of resisting partnership on the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/261008-ELECTIONSTOCKIMAGERY-14-BL-KQED-25395098.jpg\")
A vote-by-mail ballot for the Nov. 3, 2026, general election on Oct. 8, 2026.\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n