The U.S. Department of Justice has formally warned Los Angeles County officials that election administrators could face serious legal exposure if they knowingly count ballots from people federal agencies have identified as noncitizens. The warning says such conduct could make officials aiders and abettors to a federal crime.
A letter dated October 16 from Acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter answered [1] the county’s claim that officials are “legally prohibited” from temporarily separating the ballots. McCotter rejected that interpretation and directed his warning toward officials involved in handling and tabulating the disputed ballots.
The immediate dispute took shape with an October 13 delivery to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. The department hand-delivered a thumb drive containing a dataset protected by a password and identifying more than 20,000 people federal agencies reasonably believe are likely noncitizens who were registered to vote in California and received mail ballots.
The department sent similar notices to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber. State and county officials received 48 hours to review the list, determine whether any U.S. citizens were included, and separate returned ballots tied to people whose citizenship could not be independently confirmed.
Officials were also asked to withhold any ballots that had not yet been sent until the listed individuals’ status could be verified. The department described the requests as targeted precautions rather than a registration cancellation or systematic voter roll purge.
The department explicitly said it was not seeking the cancellation of any voter registration or a systematic purge of the rolls. Instead, it requested a review of ballots suspected of having been cast by noncitizens, with McCotter writing, “Allowing noncitizens to vote cancels citizen votes.”
Los Angeles County officials declined to access the thumb drive, pointing to established data privacy and information security protocols. They told the department the device was not considered a secure medium, and California authorities ultimately did not carry out the requested steps before the deadline.
The Justice Department then sued in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Its lawsuit sought an order preventing the ballots from being tabulated until officials could determine the citizenship status of the people identified in the federal dataset.
HOLY CRAP! The Trump admin told Gavin Newsom and LA County they have 20,000 possible noncitizen ballots and they are REFUSING TO DO ANYTHING
FA US ATTORNEY BILL ESSAYLI: “We’re telling them you have 20,000 non-citizens on the voter rolls, you’re going to be diluting the votes of American citizens. Their response is, it’s too late!?”
“We’re going to get it before a judge. All we’re asking them to do is sequester the ballots.”
It speaks VOLUMES that California won’t even LOOK at the ballots
If they’re so sure these are citizens — why can’t LA County access the data and prove Trump wrong? THEY WON’T. THEY KNOW.
There is more than enough time to make sure every vote is legal
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 16, 2026 [2]
McCotter’s October 16 letter to Assistant County Counsel Peter M. Bollinger directly challenged the county’s legal position on temporarily segregating those ballots. “That position is incorrect as a matter of federal law,” he wrote.
McCotter said the danger extended to officials in both the Secretary of State’s office and the County Registrar-Recorder’s office. According to his letter, their position risked knowingly facilitating violations of federal criminal statutes.
“The legal consequences for either facilitating or ignoring a federal crime are significant. Noncitizen voting in a federal election is a federal crime—and knowingly facilitating such conduct is equally unlawful,” McCotter wrote in the letter.
The subsequent warning became even more explicit about tabulation by election personnel. “If persons knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens, they risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime,” it further warns.
McCotter argued that California’s reliance on self-attestation for voter registration does not override federal prohibitions. He also said the National Voter Registration Act’s 90 day quiet period does not apply to targeted, individualized evidence supplied by federal authorities.
The letter separately rejected administrative burdens as a reason for failing to act on the federal information. “Administrative difficulty is not a defense to violating federal law or aiding or abetting a federal offense,” the letter states.
The clash follows a longer disagreement over maintenance of voter lists. In July, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin notified California about preliminary findings suggesting that as many as 190,000 potential noncitizens were on the state’s voter rolls.
California has also opposed broader Justice Department demands for detailed voter registration records in separate litigation. A federal court previously dismissed one such lawsuit seeking comprehensive voter data, while California law automatically mails ballots to all registered voters.
Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in elections for federal office. That prohibition now sits at the center of the department’s lawsuit and its warning that officials who knowingly tabulate ballots from identified noncitizens could face consequences for facilitating a federal crime.