The DOJ sued Los Angeles to stop 20,000 people from voting. One problem: Some aren’t registered there

When the Trump administration sued Los Angeles County Thursday in a bid to block 20,000 people it alleged were not citizens from voting in the upcoming midterms, it failed to mention one important detail: Some of those voters are registered outside the county’s jurisdiction — making compliance impossible.

The lawsuit, filed against both California’s secretary of state and Los Angeles County’s elections and records office, came just two days after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) accused the state and county of keeping “likely” noncitizens on their voter rolls. 

But the DOJ appears to have put Los Angeles in a bind: It asked the county to withhold ballots for people outside its jurisdiction, then sued for noncompliance.

Dean Logan, the county registrar and recorder named in the lawsuit, confirmed to Democracy Docket that the lists of names DOJ provided included people across the state and never specified why Los Angeles was singled out in the lawsuit.

“The Excel file transmitted by USDOJ contains lists of individuals with addresses throughout California with no sortation by county, city or zip code, and no indication of the source, methodology, or verification of any information provided,” he said in an email.

The DOJ did not explain how it compiled the list of names, according to state and local officials. 

Responding to emailed questions from Democracy Docket about why it sued Los Angeles over people registered outside the county, the DOJ gave a brief, unclear answer: “They are statewide.”

Based on similar efforts by the Trump administration to pinpoint noncitizens on the voter rolls, it’s likely that many of the 20,000 people flagged by the DOJ are citizens.

The Department of Homeland Security also claimed nearly 16,000 potential noncitizens were on Nevada’s roll. However, after Nevada officials questioned that figure, the department’s claim fizzled from 15,903 possible noncitizens to 185 and eventually to zero.

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said the DOJ’s request “lacks both the detail and function to be of any investigative use.” She added that “nowhere has the federal government clarified the basis for suspecting — not even confirming with any level of certainty — the listed individuals are noncitizens.”

President Donald Trump has repeatedly made unfounded allegations about noncitizen voting, pushing states to cull their voter rolls. In reality, noncitizen voting is an exceedingly rare phenomenon that has never occurred on a scale capable of affecting U.S. election outcomes.

“This is nothing more than their ongoing, dangerous, reckless, scorched-earth, widespread attempt to advance conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud that doesn’t exist,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said during a press conference.

Los Angeles — and California more broadly — has long been a target for the Trump administration. Last year, Trump sent federal agents and the National Guard to quell protests against his administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement.

In May, Trump also said he had directed the top federal prosecutor in the Central District of California to “take a look” at the state’s primary elections.

Gov. Gavin Newsom framed the DOJ lawsuit as part of broader anti-voting efforts, calling it an “authoritarian attempt to undermine our democracy.”

“This is a sad, desperate attempt by Trump to use his politicized Justice Department to try to suppress California voters just three weeks before Election Day,” Newsom wrote on social media.