California Counties Given 48 Hours to Check 20,000 Voter Records

Federal prosecutors asked California election offices on Friday to confirm within 48 hours whether about 20,000 people on a list are citizens, a request that arrives two days before an appeals court hears arguments in the dispute. The deadline lands less than two weeks before the midterm elections, and some county officials declined to act on the letters, saying the timing was too tight.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the Justice Department was acting at President Donald Trump's direction and was "politicizing and weaponizing the law" to target opponents. He said at a recent press conference that the state received names on the list but no basis for treating any of them as ineligible. "If they have such information, we would be happy to review it, but they've provided none," Bonta said.

County election staff have warned that running the check on the state's schedule could knock eligible voters off the rolls. Los Angeles officials said this week that a "high percentage" of the people named were born in the United States. Governor Gavin Newsom wrote on social media that the department sent counties lists of people who never voted, along with voters from the wrong county, and called it an "Absolute clown show!" Pete Aguilar, the congressman for south-west San Bernardino county, wrote that "Voter intimidation has no place in our democracy."

The Justice Department said the review would let the Department of Homeland Security check citizenship records quickly. "With their help, we can ensure the most secure election in California history," the department said. It has charged 28 foreign nationals with registering to vote illegally. First assistant US attorney Bill Essayli said the arrests showed that "California is mailing ballots to noncitizen, and they are refusing to comply with federal law, which makes it a crime for noncitizens to vote." All 28 defendants are lawful permanent residents, who hold legal status but cannot cast ballots.

Voting by people who are not citizens remains rare. The department has increased prosecutions of people accused of voting without citizenship as the election approaches, part of a wider Republican effort nationally to crack down on alleged fraud among undocumented immigrants. An appeals court is scheduled to hear the case on Tuesday.