DOJ Gives California 48 Hours to Review Noncitizen Voter List; Weber Refuses to 'Blindly Trust' Federal Data

The U.S. Justice Department gave California officials 48 hours to review a list of alleged noncitizen voters or face court action, delivering a password-protected thumb drive to Los Angeles County election officials with the password handwritten on a sticky note, according to a department letter released Wednesday.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter directed California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan in Oct. 13 letters to review the list within two days and "segregate — not cancel" ballots from individuals whose citizenship could not be independently confirmed. The deadline falls just 21 days before the Nov. 3 general election.

"If you cannot implement this process by then, given the ongoing federal election, the United States will have no choice but to seek emergency relief," McCotter wrote.

Weber fired back Wednesday evening, stating that the DOJ did not provide her office with the list itself — only a demand to obtain and review it — and that the administration had refused for months to share its methodology for identifying alleged noncitizen voters.

"The USDOJ, under threat of 'emergency' litigation, demands that California blindly trust this administration without any evidence or legal authority to justify its request," Weber said. "The USDOJ's relentless efforts to unlawfully gain access to states' protected voter data and purge voter rolls serve only to cause chaos and fuel public distrust in our elections."

Weber noted that President Trump and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullen made claims in July that California had 190,000 noncitizens on its voter rolls but provided no supporting data when her office requested it.

LA County response

Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan confirmed his office received the letter and thumb drive on the afternoon of Oct. 13 but said officials have not accessed the drive because doing so "would conflict with established data privacy and information security protocols."

"Any action to remove a voter from eligibility must be based on verifiable information, not assertions of unconfirmed data matching," Logan said.

Reuters reported that DOJ officials described the list as covering "thousands" of possible noncitizens statewide, not limited to LA County.

San Diego connection

The demand comes after San Diego County election officials received five grand jury subpoenas for voter records between June and September of this year — a sharp increase from just one subpoena in all of 2025 and none in the two years prior, according to county spokespersons quoted by inewsource.

A Homeland Security Investigations official said last month the administration's voter-integrity push has produced about 1,600 cases and 160 arrests nationally. A ProPublica analysis found fewer than 150 suspected noncitizen voters were referred for prosecution from January 2025 through May 2026.

The DOJ letter cites 18 U.S.C. § 611, which prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, and argues that California's automatic vote-by-mail system — which sends ballots to "every registered voter" — makes identifying ineligible recipients urgent.

The response deadline set by the department is noon Eastern time on Oct. 15.

Early in-person voting in California began Monday. Mail ballots have already reached San Diego County voters.