The Justice Department (DOJ) has served three subpoenas to Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder employees, requiring them to appear in court on Nov. 4 as part of a federal inquiry into non-U.S. citizen voters in California.
Earlier this month, the DOJ sued the state after delivering a USB drive with citizenship data on voter rolls, giving California 48 hours to match 20,000 names flagged by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as non-citizens against its own records. The letter accompanying the drive contained a handwritten password for file access.
According to the Associated Press, the subpoenas seek documents and communications related to letters sent to state election officials in July and October alleging non-citizen registrations, as well as any actions taken to stop such votes from being counted.
A DOJ spokesperson told The Hill that the department "does not comment on leaks about alleged grand jury subpoenas."
"The district court judge explained that voting unlawfully results in criminal exposure. Consistent with this, California also wrote in its filing that the remedy for unlawful voting is through criminal prosecution. Thus, while DOJ maintains that a civil remedy is still available, all agree that noncitizen voting is properly addressed through criminal law," the spokesperson added.
President Trump warned California officials on Truth Social earlier this month that they could face criminal charges if they processed mail-in ballots from non-citizen voters.
In July, Trump claimed California and three other states together had 250,000 non-citizens on their voter rolls. A federal preliminary review of the DHS lists found only 118,000 names matched the government's flags.
Washington state is also under federal scrutiny, with officials asked to set aside ballots from more than 400 individuals allegedly registered without U.S. citizenship.
A fact sheet from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services notes that federal law permits voting only for U.S. citizens in federal elections.
Sophie Brams contributed.
