October 16, 2026 – DOJ warns CA election officials they could face prosecution if suspected noncitizen ballots are counted

In Email/Dossier/Govt Corruption Investigations, Featured Timeline Entries by Katie Weddington

The Trump administration is intensifying its clash with California over election procedures, warning state and local officials they could face criminal investigations and prosecution if they knowingly count ballots cast by suspected noncitizens in federal elections.

Trent McCotter (Credit: public domain)

In a letter sent on Friday, acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter cautioned California election officials that processing ballots from individuals identified by federal agencies as potentially ineligible voters could expose them to criminal liability.

The letter, first obtained by The Associated Press, came one day after the Justice Department sued California in an effort to block the state from counting mail ballots submitted by individuals the federal government has identified as “likely” noncitizens until their immigration status can be verified.

“The legal consequences for either facilitating or ignoring a federal crime are significant,” McCotter wrote, emphasizing that noncitizen voting in federal elections is illegal and that knowingly assisting such conduct can also constitute a crime.

McCotter further warned that election officials who knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens could risk being prosecuted as aiders and abettors. (Read more: Just the News, 10/17/2026)  (Archive)

A week later:

BREAKING: Democrats Stand to Lose 2-5 U.S. House Seats Over DOJ Crackdown in California.

Los Angeles election officials recently admitted in federal court that they have no independent way to verify the citizenship status of California voters — they simply take voters at their word. Federal law restricts voting in federal elections to citizens only, yet California recently mailed ballots to roughly 20,000 people that federal records flag as likely noncitizens and refused to comply with the DOJ’s requests to set those ballots aside.

The DOJ sued, then expanded the action to all 58 California counties. The DOJ’s letters demand that California election officials work with the DOJ and DHS to confirm citizenship, segregate — not cancel — any unconfirmed vote-by-mail ballots, and leave them untabulated until eligibility has been verified. The DOJ has warned that any election officials who knowingly count these ballots will face criminal liability.

The 9th Circuit Court has ordered California to respond to the DOJ’s emergency appeal seeking to keep those ballots set aside. California’s honor system and universal mail-ballot regime are now under direct federal pressure.

As a consequence, the Democrats could potentially lose 2–5 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives relative to pre-enforcement expectations — enough to offset some of Prop 50’s Democratic gains and improve the GOP’s odds of holding or expanding its House majority. In several competitive Central Valley and Southern California districts, a few hundred to a couple thousand votes can often decide the outcome of an election.

Democrats are panicking because their structural edge in California depends on minimal verification and high-volume mail voting. Statewide notices put every registrar on formal notice of legal risk and threaten the margins that Prop 50 was manufactured to protect.

With Election Day less than two weeks away, the Trump DOJ is successfully forcing California to follow federal law — and the political consequences stand to have national implications.

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