DOJ’s California lawsuit ‘borders on the absurd’ and ‘threatens to disenfranchise thousands,’ state says

Thousands of eligible voters could be disenfranchised if a federal court grants the Trump administration’s request to bar California from counting the votes of 20,000 people it accuses of being noncitizens, the state says.

“At best, this litigation is a reckless political stunt. At worst, it threatens to disenfranchise thousands of Californians this election,” lawyers for California wrote in a response to the administration’s lawsuit. “Plaintiff’s sole claim—that a federal criminal prohibition on individual noncitizen voting preempts large swaths of California’s election administration—borders on the absurd.” 

The state is fighting off an attempt by the Trump administration to suppress votes just two weeks before election day. 

The standoff began last week when the DOJ provided California and Los Angeles with a thumb drive with a hand-scrawled password on a sticky note claiming it contained the names of 20,000 suspected noncitizens registered to vote. The DOJ immediately sued the state and Los Angeles County after they refused to act on the list of names within 48 hours.

The Trump administration escalated the fight Monday, asking a federal judge to immediately bar California from tabulating votes from anyone on the list. The administration on Monday arrested 11 people on the list, and charged 28, alleging that they illegally registered to vote.

Los Angeles County, in a separate response, argued this is a crisis of DOJ’s own making because federal officials refused to explain to local election workers how it determined the 20,000 people it listed were believed to be noncitizens. Instead, the administration gave election officials an unreasonable 48-hour deadline to review and remove the names before it filed its lawsuit.

“A ballot hold is no modest precaution when the Executive cannot say how or when it will end,” lawyers for the county wrote. “The County of Los Angeles can evaluate credible evidence through lawful procedures, and the Executive remains free to investigate and prosecute actual offenses. Neither requires an emergency order placing thousands of registered voters’ ballots on hold while federal officials investigate indefinitely.”

Past Trump administration claims of widespread noncitizen voting have crumbled under scrutiny. For example, claims that nearly 16,000 noncitizens were registered to vote in Nevada were reduced to 185 before election officials later confirmed that everyone on the list was actually an eligible voter.

Despite President Donald Trump’s claims that noncitizen voting is rampant, in reality it rarely happens and never on the scale to affect the outcome of an election.

Los Angeles County said the DOJ’s demands create a risk that eligible voters could be erroneously disenfranchised this close to an election.

“The Executive has not shown that federal law authorizes that disruption, that reliable evidence makes it necessary, or that eligible voters will be protected from its consequences,” it said.