Justice Department Charges 28 Californians in Voting-Related Case
Cyberzenhub.com – The Justice Department has brought election-related charges against 28 people in California, escalating a dispute with state and county officials over a federal list of voters the government believes may not be U.S. citizens.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter announced the cases at a Monday news conference. The defendants face varying combinations of allegations, including voting unlawfully as noncitizens, claiming U.S. citizenship to register or cast a ballot, and knowingly interfering with Californians’ right to a fair and impartial election process.
Some of those charged are lawful permanent residents, commonly known as green card holders, McCotter said. The charges do not mean that every person named in a broader federal list has been accused of a crime.
Dispute centers on list of 20,000 names
The 28 defendants are among roughly 20,000 people identified in material the Justice Department provided to California last week. Federal officials said the state had issued mail ballots to people on that list for the upcoming midterm election even though the department suspected they were in the country unlawfully.
On Thursday, the Justice Department sued California, arguing that the state failed to examine the list and take appropriate action. California officials have rejected the request, describing it as legally unfounded and as an attempt by the Trump administration to interfere with the state’s election administration.
“After we provided that information, California and L.A. didn’t come back and say, ‘No, you’re wrong. These folks are citizens.’ They didn’t say, ‘Actually, let’s work together and try to figure out whether they’re citizens,’” McCotter said.
He criticized Los Angeles County in particular for declining to open the information supplied by federal officials, saying the county would not try to review the material because of concerns involving information-technology security.
The conflict comes as California prepares for another statewide election in one of the nation’s largest voting jurisdictions. More than 16 million ballots were cast in California during the most recent presidential election, while turnout nationally exceeded 150 million voters.
Los Angeles County cites data-security concerns
Los Angeles County Clerk Dean Logan said last week that his office would not access the contents of a thumb drive delivered by the Justice Department. The device came with a password written on a sticky note, a handling method county officials said did not meet their established privacy and information-security standards.
“We do not consider the device a secure medium,” Logan said. “Additionally, the letter does not specify the number of individuals involved or describe the information contained in the records.”
The disagreement highlights a practical issue behind the legal fight: election agencies must protect voter information while also reviewing allegations that could affect registration records. County officials are responsible for administering elections, maintaining voter data and safeguarding the systems used to process registrations and ballots.
California officials have also pointed to the federal government’s recent courtroom record in voter-roll disputes. The administration has faced more than two dozen consecutive losses during the past year in litigation seeking to require states to provide voter-roll information.
How federal officials say the names were identified
McCotter said the Department of Homeland Security developed the 20,000-name list by comparing publicly available California voter rolls with other public sources and government databases. He said officials then removed people for whom there was evidence of U.S. citizenship.
“The next step subtracted anybody who had any sort of evidence of actually being a citizen,” McCotter said.
He described checks involving State Department records, passport information, Social Security Administration records and alien files. Officials also considered whether a person could have acquired citizenship through a parent or become a naturalized citizen, he said.
After those exclusions, McCotter said, federal personnel manually reviewed the remaining names and concluded that the people were likely noncitizens appearing on California’s voter rolls. The department’s broader legal claims and the criminal cases involving the 28 defendants remain separate matters, even though both arose from the same federal review.
Potential scrutiny of election workers
McCotter did not rule out possible cases involving election workers who processed registrations or ballots connected to people suspected of being noncitizens. He stressed that no decision had been announced and that he was not prejudging future prosecutions.
“I’m not going to prejudge or pre-announce any sort of criminal case, but this is not an unusual doctrine,” McCotter said.
He referred to the federal legal principle of aiding and abetting, under which a person can face charges for knowingly helping another person commit an offense. Whether that theory could apply to any election worker would depend on evidence of knowledge and assistance, rather than simply performing routine administrative duties.
The announcement adds to a broader national argument over election integrity and noncitizen voting. President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders have portrayed noncitizen voting as a serious risk to free and fair elections. Election experts, however, have maintained that verified instances of noncitizens casting ballots are exceptionally uncommon.
For California voters, the case underscores the importance of distinguishing between allegations, administrative reviews and criminal charges. Voter registration systems are designed to determine eligibility before ballots are cast, but challenges to registration records can involve overlapping questions of citizenship, documentation, data accuracy and privacy protections.
The Justice Department’s cases against the 28 individuals will proceed through the federal legal process, where prosecutors will be required to prove the allegations. At the same time, California and Los Angeles County face continuing pressure to respond to the federal government’s claims while maintaining the security and integrity of their election systems.
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