A federal judge refused to set the ballots aside. The Justice Department’s complaint spells out how it built the list and leaves one question open: how many of those people voted.
A federal judge on Wednesday refused to order California to set aside roughly 20,000 mail ballots that the Justice Department says went to likely noncitizens. U.S. District Judge David Carter said the request would “wreak havoc” on an election already under way, according to reports of the ruling. The ballots remain in the count for now. The department is appealing, and Election Day is Nov. 3.
The department’s complaint, filed Oct. 15, makes one claim. It argues that California’s decision to send ballots to people federal agencies flagged as likely noncitizens, and to count them, is preempted by 18 U.S.C. § 611, the federal law barring noncitizens from voting in federal elections. The defendants are the State of California, Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan.
The complaint describes how the list was built. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services compared California voter roll data with its own records and sorted the matches by confidence level. It took the high-confidence matches, tied them to immigration file numbers, and checked them against naturalization, derived citizenship, State Department and Social Security death records, with a second review. It then referred the names to Homeland Security Investigations for further data work. The complaint adds that California has not submitted its rolls to the federal SAVE verification program, so the process ran independently of it.
The complaint’s wording on the numbers varies. It says HSI “reasonably believes that around 20,000 noncitizens are registered to vote in California,” and elsewhere calls the same people “likely noncitizens.” The department’s own press release also says “likely,” and quotes Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin calling the analysis “preliminary,” with review ongoing.
California mailed ballots Oct. 1, the complaint says. The federal government gave state officials the list on Oct. 13 and asked for a review by noon Oct. 15, a window the Associated Press reported as 48 hours. The complaint says California failed to respond, and points to Los Angeles County’s announcement that it had rejected an encrypted thumb drive from a federal agent. County officials said the drive was not a secure medium and that removing voters must rest on verifiable information. Weber criticized the department for relying on “unverifiable information or methodology” it had not explained.
The complaint alleges that these people were sent ballots, and that nearly 20,000 “have been sent a vote-by-mail ballot … (or will receive one).” It does not say how many returned a ballot. The press release says the people “registered to vote and/or voted.” The complaint also does not name the third-party software used in the matching or give an error rate.
Carter, according to a summary of his ruling, noted that the government had identified about 190,000 suspect voters in July without disclosing its methodology, and said it had a “clear remedy” through prosecutorial tools. The complaint says it is not practicable for the government to investigate that many names before the election ends. A federal appeals court declined on Oct. 26 to rule on the department’s emergency request. Carter’s written order was not available to WECU News when this story was written, and the description of his reasoning comes from published summaries.
How often noncitizens vote is itself disputed. The Trump administration has claimed large numbers in Democratic-led states including California, and California officials say the number is negligible, according to reports on the case.
Sources
Complaint, United States v. State of California, 2:26-cv-12025, Doc. 1 (C.D. Cal., filed Oct. 15, 2026), via CourtListener
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California (Oct. 15, 2026): press release on the lawsuit
Associated Press via WDBJ (Oct. 14, 2026): DOJ letter and deadline
Associated Press via NY1 (Oct. 26, 2026): appeals court declines emergency request
Al Jazeera (Oct. 15, 2026): lawsuit filed; Weber’s response (secondhand)
Straight Arrow News (Oct. 28, 2026): Carter ruling (secondhand; replace with the order itself)
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