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- calendar_today October 14, 2026
Justice Department Demands Review of Mail Ballots in California
The U.S. Justice Department has instructed California officials to review a list of individuals who the federal government believes may have received mail-in ballots for the upcoming November election despite not being U.S. citizens.
Urgent Directive Sent to State and Local Officials
According to a letter dated October 13 and reviewed by CBS News, acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter ordered California to examine the list of names—provided on a password-protected thumb drive—within 48 hours to determine each individual’s citizenship status. Officials are required to independently confirm the citizenship status of each person on the list.
Instructions on Managing Questionable Ballots
McCotter’s letter further directed that if officials cannot confirm an individual’s citizenship, they must immediately instruct the relevant elections official to segregate, but not cancel, those individuals’ vote-by-mail ballots until their citizenship can be verified. He also told officials that if a mail ballot has not yet been sent to someone on the list, they should take all immediate and reasonable actions to withhold ballots until citizenship is confirmed.
Scope of the Inquiry and Communications to Counties
The Justice Department’s letter was sent to the Los Angeles County clerk’s office, and similar communications were dispatched to other counties within California, according to a source familiar with the matter. CBS News reached out to the California secretary of state for comment, and a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder acknowledged receiving the letter.
Background: Federal Concerns Over Voter Rolls
This review follows a July letter by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to California’s secretary of state, in which he expressed apprehensions over possible noncitizens being present on state voter rolls. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has taken legal action in 31 cases to compel states to provide unredacted copies of their voter rolls, asserting the need to maintain accurate voter lists. It also confirmed intentions to share obtained voter data with the Department of Homeland Security to screen for noncitizens.
National Push for Citizenship Verification
In July, Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, sent letters to all 50 states warning of potential criminal actions against states that knowingly allow noncitizens to remain on their voter rolls. Despite these efforts, the Justice Department has not achieved any legal victories so far, having lost 26 reported cases, and continues to use public data and investigative methods to identify potential noncitizen voters.
Debate Over Voter Fraud Claims and Election Integrity
Since the beginning of President Trump’s administration, more than 100 people have faced criminal charges related to voter fraud. The administration’s crackdown occurs in the context of persistent, unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud impacting the 2020 election. Experts and several studies have consistently found that incidents of voter fraud are rare and have not affected election outcomes in the United States.
Data on Noncitizens and Voter Rolls
A Reuters analysis published last month indicated that over 30,000 self-declared noncitizens may have been added to U.S. voter rolls since 2000, often due to software issues or clerical errors during processing of driver’s licenses and state identification cards. However, that number is very small compared to the approximately 174 million registered voters counted by the Census Bureau in the 2024 election.
Source: cbsnews.com.
