DOJ Seeks Supreme Court Review on Noncitizen Ballots in California
DOJ urges Supreme Court to review 20,000 suspected noncitizen ballots in California ahead of midterms.
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The U.S. Department of Justice has asked the Supreme Court to intervene in a dispute over more than 20,000 suspected ballots cast by noncitizens in California ahead of the midterm elections. The request comes after lower courts rejected the Justice Department’s earlier attempt to segregate mail-in ballots from suspected noncitizens.
Supreme Court Urged to Act Before Election Day
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli emphasized the urgency of the situation, stating that the Supreme Court must weigh in before Election Day on Tuesday. He warned that noncitizens could influence the outcome of close elections, citing recent examples in California where votes have been decided by just a few ballots.
“There are many close elections in our system here. We have elections that are decided by less than twenty votes within recent memory here in California,” Essayli said. “So every vote does matter. It doesn’t take many illegal votes to corrupt our elections, and every single one of the 34 people charged so far are all people who are on the list that we provided to the state of California.”
Essayli clarified that the last-ditch attempt “does not mean” the ballots “won’t be counted … It means that we’ll have an opportunity to present our evidence in court and make a determination on whether those ballots are legal or not.”
“We’re not waiting for that injunction; we’re moving forward with criminal prosecutions,” Essayli said.
California has refused to work with the Federal Government to protect against noncitizen voting, which dilutes lawful votes, so @TheJusticeDept has filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court to require California to segregate mail-in ballots associated with more than 20,000 likely noncitizens until their citizenship can be verified.
Charges Against Noncitizen Voters
The Justice Department has charged six green card holders who allegedly registered to vote or voted in federal elections. Among them is an Iranian national who allegedly voted twice in 2024 before applying for citizenship earlier this year. Another is a Canadian citizen who allegedly voted in the 2022 and 2024 elections and later submitted a voter registration cancellation request in 2025, acknowledging his ineligibility to vote. He then applied for citizenship and lied in the process, claiming to have never registered or voted in any elections.
To date, the Trump administration has charged 34 noncitizens with election-related crimes. All 34 are included on the list of 20,000 suspected noncitizens, Essayli said. Five of the six suspects charged in the latest group were in custody as of Monday afternoon.
Local Prosecutors Emphasize Election Integrity
Dan Dow, District Attorney of the County of San Luis Obispo, announced local charges against one of the noncitizens. He stressed the importance of enforcing election laws, warning that ignoring the issue would undermine the constitutional requirement of citizenship.
“If we as state and local prosecutors ignore this problem and don’t enforce the law, we may as well just erase that requirement of citizenship from our constitution,” Dow said. “If you’re not a United States citizen, do not cast a ballot whether you’re registered or not.”
“Election integrity is not a Republican or a Democrat issue, it is an American issue and a Californian issue,” he said.
Source: Daily Wire
