Justice Department gives California 48 hours over alleged noncitizen voter list

The Justice Department has given California 48 hours to act on a list of people it says are likely noncitizens who were issued Los Angeles County mail ballots. A letter to Secretary of State Shirley Weber from acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter warns that federal lawyers will seek emergency relief if the state does not comply.

What the letter demands

According to the letter federal officials handed Los Angeles County a password-protected drive with the names. It tells the state to stop sending ballots to people on the list until citizenship is verified to segregate any ballots those people already return and to hold off counting ballots already cast until citizenship is determined.

"Allowing noncitizens to vote cancels citizen votes," McCotter wrote. Department spokeswoman Kiersten Pels said the department will take all necessary legal action to protect election integrity and ensure compliance with federal law.

A wider election fight

The ultimatum lands weeks before the Nov. 3 midterms as Republicans defend narrow majorities in Congress. California has clashed for months with federal officials over demands for voter-roll data. The Civil Rights Division has sought nonpublic voter information from nearly every state and has sued dozens of states that refused to turn over their full rolls losing most of those cases.

A federal judge in Washington earlier this month blocked a broader Justice Department push to gather state voter lists for noncitizen searches. Studies and election officials have long said proven noncitizen voting is rare relative to the size of the national electorate.

Why California matters

California could help decide control of the House after voters approved a new congressional map that favors Democrats. Los Angeles voters will also weigh a local measure on whether certain noncitizen legal residents may vote in municipal races.

State officials did not immediately detail how they will answer the 48-hour demand. Counties are already mailing ballots and early voting windows are opening across the country so any court fight over segregation or counting rules could collide with the calendar.