In a controversial move, the Trump administration has filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Los Angeles, urging the judge to prevent California from counting approximately 20,000 ballots. These ballots were singled out by an unnamed third-party software that cross-referenced a commercially available list of registered voters. The Department of Justice (DOJ) claims these votes may have been cast by non-U.S. citizens and seeks to have them segregated until their validity is confirmed.

This legal action follows a terse exchange between state officials and the DOJ, which began with a set of letters from Acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan. The letters demanded that California “segregate—not cancel” the ballots in question within 48 hours, a request that was met with resistance from Logan who refused to insert a provided USB drive into Los Angeles’s election database due to security concerns.

Secretary Weber has expressed skepticism regarding the DOJ's claims and their refusal to disclose the methodology or data supporting their accusations. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initially claimed there were over 190,000 non-citizens registered to vote in California, but this figure was later adjusted to around 20,000.

The lawsuit leverages the 1973 Supreme Court case Norwood v. Harrison to argue that by mailing ballots to all registered voters without verifying their citizenship status, California is indirectly allowing noncitizens to vote, thus contravening federal law. However, this interpretation is contentious as it contradicts the stipulations of the National Voter Registration Act, which mandates that states accept the federal voter registration form without requiring additional proof of citizenship.

Critics argue that the DOJ's strategy mirrors a failed attempt in Nevada to purge voter rolls based on similarly dubious data. In Nevada, the administration claimed nearly 16,000 non-citizens were registered to vote but could verify only 185, all of whom were later found to be legitimate voters.

The complaint by the DOJ does not seek immediate judicial intervention to enforce its demands, likely due to the impracticality of verifying the citizenship status of 20,000 individuals before the upcoming 2026 elections. Critics view this move as a tactic to disenfranchise voters or cast doubt on the election's legitimacy, especially since federal law establishes a 90-day quiet period before elections during which no changes to voter rolls can be made.

This lawsuit is seen by many as a troubling attempt to influence electoral outcomes by challenging the integrity of voter rolls based on unverified and potentially flawed data. The case, titled US v. California, continues to develop and is being closely monitored by both legal experts and voting rights advocates.