Politics
28 face federal charges in California voter eligibility sweep
Federal prosecutors charged 28 lawful permanent residents in California with alleged election and immigration offenses as the Justice Department seeks new restrictions on ballots it says may have been sent to noncitizens. The sweep intensifies a dispute with state officials, while available data indicates noncitizen voting is rare and has not been shown to change election outcomes.
Federal authorities charged 28 people in California on Monday, Oct. 19, alleging that they illegally registered to vote or cast ballots while they were not U.S. citizens. The Justice Department said the defendants are lawful permanent residents and that the cases were part of a statewide operation called “Protect the Vote.”
The charges include allegedly submitting fraudulent voter registrations and making false statements on naturalization applications. One defendant, a 72-year-old man born in Belize, is accused of voting illegally in four elections. The allegations have not been proven in court.
At a news conference in Los Angeles, acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said illegal voting harms elections and American voters. The department said Monday it had charged 113 people in 20 states with illegal voting or registration offenses in recent weeks. The United States had more than 227 million registered voters in the 2024 presidential election.
The California arrests come amid a widening confrontation between the Trump administration and state officials over voter records and mail ballots, just weeks before the Nov. 3 election. The administration has made noncitizen voting a national enforcement priority, although available data indicates the practice is extremely rare, difficult to establish and has not been shown to change election results.
Last week, the Justice Department sued California, seeking to block the state from counting mail ballots from people federal officials have labeled “likely” noncitizens until their citizenship is verified. The department says a password-protected drive it gave the state contained 20,000 names of people it believes were sent ballots. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber has said the federal government provided no evidence supporting that claim. McCotter said the figure could grow.
On Monday, the department asked a court to order California to set aside the ballots and verify the voters’ citizenship before counting them. It wants an order in place before the election, arguing that otherwise U.S. citizens’ votes could be diluted. California mails ballots to all registered voters, and more than 23 million people are registered statewide.
The federal government’s actions follow a broader campaign to obtain detailed voter information from states, including dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers. The Justice Department has sued 30 states and the District of Columbia to obtain records; those lawsuits have so far been unsuccessful.
The department also sent a warning to California election officials last week that knowingly processing ballots cast by noncitizens could expose workers to investigation or prosecution. Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan said his office was focused on conducting a fair and secure election and that the department’s claims should be addressed in court.
The sweep involved all four U.S. attorneys’ offices in California. Federal agents arrested the 72-year-old man at his home in Commerce, in Los Angeles County. State officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday. California is generally not considered a presidential battleground, but several competitive congressional races could affect which party controls the House.