This week at Democracy Docket: Trump targets California ballots, in his most dangerous escalation yet

When major news breaks on President Donald Trump’s relentless crusade to suppress midterm voting, we don’t just cover it. We surround it. 

Late Monday, we learned that the Department of Justice (DOJ) had sent a letter to California election officials, threatening a lawsuit if the state counted ballots from voters on a list the administration created of alleged noncitizens.

Forty-eight hours later, DOJ followed through on that threat. 

Then it ramped things up further, sending a new letter warning that election officials could face criminal prosecution if they fail to comply.

Trump has been working to undermine the midterms since he regained office. But the California story takes us one key step further into the abyss — with the administration now not just asserting control over voter registration lists but actively seeking to block the counting of live ballots. 

The 13 separate news stories we’ve published since this episode began bring home that dangerous escalation. They also make clear the stunning flimsiness of the evidence behind the campaign. 

Here are some of the most important:

• Yunior Rivas explained how DOJ cited no clear legal authority in its initial demand to California.

• Alexandra Hutzler noted how, in a separate lawsuit seeking documents on administration plans to meddle in the midterms, Democrats ominously warned that the California effort raises the threat of “warrant-based ballot seizure” this fall.

• After DOJ filed suit Thursday, Yunior reported that it had given California just 48 hours to verify around 20,000 names — meaning the state would have had to check roughly 417 voters per hour to comply.

• Natalie Note brought news of the defiant response from California Secretary of State Shirley Weber (D). “I will not disenfranchise thousands of Californians — or order any county elections official to do so — based solely upon an unsupported and likely inaccurate ‘belie[f]’ that certain voters are ‘likely’ noncitizens,” Weber wrote to DOJ. 

• Yunior looked at the responses to the news from voting experts and advocates, who confirmed that the attack on California takes the administration’s anti-voting campaign into dangerous new territory, and warned that it could lay the groundwork for post-election challenges.

• Alexandra reported on a pro-democracy group’s new legal claim that the effort against California violates a recent court order barring DOJ from using state voter roll data.

• Ajani Stella flagged that some of the voters on the administration’s list don’t even live in Los Angeles County, which was sued along with California. That means the county is being asked to withhold ballots from voters outside its jurisdiction.

• Yunior told us about a threatening new letter from a top DOJ official warning California election officials that if they do count the votes of the people on the list, without verifying their citizenship, they could be  “aiders and abettors to a federal crime.”

• Jacob Knutson followed up with Trump’s even less subtle threat. “They will all go to jail,” the president wrote on social media.

• Yunior zeroed in on the role of Trent McCotter, the DOJ official who sent that threat to prosecute, and has played an important broader role in this week’s attack on California.

• And Yunior explained that the new attack is far from the first time Trump has targeted the Golden State — which is now ground zero in his bid to rig the midterms.

• Oh and this must-watch Instagram reel from Video Journalist Emily Gross breaks it all down for you.

Of course, we saw plenty of other crucial developments this week in the fight to protect free and fair midterm elections. 

But the California news stands out for what it may augur for Election Day and afterwards. That’s why we covered it from every angle. 

And you can bet this saga isn’t ending any time soon. Which is why, as Election Day approaches, we’ll keep bringing you every twist and turn.