By Andrew Childers / Democracy Docket / October 19, 2026
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is asking a federal court to immediately prevent California from counting the ballots of 20,000 people the Trump administration has accused of being noncitizens who illegally registered to vote.
The request for a temporary restraining order is the latest escalation between California and the Trump administration over the midterms. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) over the weekend accused President Donald Trump of attempting to rig the election.
“California not just refused to act; it made clear that it is committed to treating ballots from those likely noncitizens equal to ballots from American citizens, prompting this suit and motion that seeks commonplace election relief when ballots are called into question,” DOJ said in its filing in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
The standoff began last week when the DOJ sent California a thumb drive with a hand-scrawled password on a sticky note that it claimed contained the names of 20,000 suspected noncitizens registered to vote in the state. The Justice Department gave California only 48 hours to validate those names and demanded that California not count the ballots of anyone on the list. State officials declined, calling the request “outrageous.”
DOJ immediately filed a lawsuit accusing California election officials of knowingly aiding noncitizens who want to illegally vote in the upcoming election.*
In its filing Monday requesting emergency relief, the DOJ argued that the 48-hour ultimatum was a “modest request.”
But at the same time, the administration admitted the enormity of the investigation was too much for even the federal government to prosecute each case.
“It is not practicable or feasible for the Federal Government to prosecute thousands, let alone tens of thousands, of individuals that two federal investigative offices have identified as likely noncitizens,” it said prior to filing the lawsuit. “And while a State is not required to help the Federal Government investigate and prosecute crimes, facilitating the commission of such crimes obviously hampers such efforts.”
Earlier Monday, the Trump administration began arresting people from the list of suspected noncitizens.
In its court filing, DOJ blames California for not cooperating with the Trump administration to root out suspected noncitizens registered to vote. The DOJ said California has refused to share its unredacted voter rolls, which contain sensitive personal information such as Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and birthdates. (29 other states also have refused to cooperate.) The DOJ has lost every lawsuit attempting to force states to release that information.
Trump has baselessly claimed for years that noncitizens voting in elections is a widespread problem that must be addressed. In reality, noncitizens voting happens rarely and never at a scale that could tip election results.
The DOJ, in its filing, claimed that the 20,000 suspected noncitizens it identified “represents the floor of potential noncitizen California voters.”
“The review is ongoing as additional records are received on a rolling basis before the election date to ensure election integrity,” the department said. “[U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] will supplement the record with additional information of likely noncitizen voting in the federal election.”
*The Elias Law Group (ELG) is representing pro-voting groups who have asked the court to be added as intervenor-defendants to DOJ’s lawsuit against California. ELG firm chair Marc Elias is the founder of Democracy Docket.
Noncitizens are smart enough to know that voting illegally can result in a felony conviction. Illegal immigrants are here for work and would never jeopardize their stay. The republicans have been promoting this BS for years nationally with almost no backing. Less than 0.0001% have been found voting illegally, and more than half who completed their votes voted for (R) candidates. Quite simply, people who have voted for this president 3 times and said they would again are not as smart as the vast majority of noncitizens who do not attempt to vote.
Now the Fascists are trying the same crap up here! Remember when they threw 20,000 illegal voter names at Nevada…and that number eventually became zero?
Trump DOJ Brings ‘Tired, Desperate’ Attempt to Find Noncitizen Voting to Washington State
“The timing of this request—one week before the general election—is no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results,” said Secretary of State Steve Hobbs.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/washington-state-voting
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Does anybody else besides me think that Blanche has practiced the Trump Surrender scowl photo? He drops it in this longer-more complete-interview because he’s SO shocked that somebody thinks Trump can do Jan. 6th again. The facade cracks pretty good here…
ALERT: Attorney General drops SHOCKING announcement
https://www.youtube.com/live/5sCG5rqysNM
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sealintheSelkirks
From DROPSITE DAILY:
DOJ says FBI and ICE personnel won’t serve as midterm poll monitors, but other federal agents will: The DOJ said in a court filing on Wednesday that ICE and FBI employees will not monitor the midterm elections next week. Instead, agents of the Bureau of Prisons, the ATF, and the DEA will. The disclosure follows a suit from the NAACP that sought to bar prosecutors and law enforcement from monitoring polling places. The DOJ said that agents of the Bureau of Prisons, the ATF, and the DEA will stand outside the polls to observe the scene, take notes, and interview willing voters. The federal agents will not act as law enforcement officials, the DOJ added, and will not carry firearms. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in September that ICE would not patrol or monitor polling sites but could be present “if there is a threat to that polling place or we’re serving a warrant on someone that we have been actively tracking down.”
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I feel so much better now that only a bunch of brutal dumbfu** low-education prison guards, corrupt and very violent DEA agents, along with the boys & girls from Alcohol/Tobbaco & Firearms are going to ‘GUARD’ the voting booths by observing, taking notes, and interviewing (taking photos and video of license plates and faces of voters entering, and throwing people against cars if they object?)!
I’m SURE that they have been in oh-so-wonderfully trained in all the ways that our elections have been working so well for decades…so they can perfectly disrupt them in any way they possibly can to throw the election for the MAGA Republicans.
I bet they are going to feel really naked without their guns, though…but then nothing was said about disarming them of their Tasers, billy clubs, and other weapons of choice! I’m sure that was just an oversight, yes?
Maybe they can borrow those new electric shocker ‘Taser’ gloves from the ICE goons to wear. Just in case they have to protect themselves from the commie socialist leftie crowds of voters who…won’t do what they are told?
Ain’t this fun?
sealintheSelkirks