Noncitizen Voter Lists Expand to Five States as Courts Twice Decline to Block California Ballots
WASHINGTON — Lists of possible noncitizen voters compiled by the Trump administration could be used to contest the validity of results as Americans head to the polls on Tuesday for the midterm elections, Reuters reported on November 1.
The administration has acknowledged sending letters to election officials in five states — California, Washington, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Nevada — as of October 30, saying it identified noncitizens on their voter rolls, according to a Justice Department document seen by Reuters.
In an October 13 letter, the Justice Department demanded California not count ballots from about 20,000 registered voters without first verifying their citizenship, warning that election workers who processed them could face prosecution. The department is now suing California to block the state from counting any ballots from the list of 20,000 voters.
Courts have twice sided with California. On October 28, a federal judge in California rejected the Justice Department's bid to block ballots from the 20,000 voters, saying the move would "wreak havoc" on the November 3 elections and questioning the reliability of the list. An appeals court upheld the ruling on October 30, citing a "material risk" of disenfranchising eligible voters. The Justice Department would "probably" appeal, Reuters reported.
The Department of Homeland Security obtained at least partial voter-roll data from at least 47 states, typically including names, addresses and registration status and, in some cases, dates of birth, according to Reuters. Noncitizen voting is illegal and can lead to jail time, fines and deportation. A Reuters investigation in July found just 129 cases in which noncitizens were federally charged with voting illegally since a federal "voting by aliens" statute was created in 1996; many appeared to stem from confusion or administrative errors rather than intentional fraud.
Source: Reuters, November 1 report, citing Justice Department documents and court rulings.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：选民排队提前投票（资料图）。来源：Wikimedia Commons（Famartin，CC BY-SA 4.0）
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- 2026-11-01Noncitizen Voter Lists Expand to Five States as Courts Twice Decline to Block California BallotsThis story
