Attorney General Todd Blanche said Thursday that he could not rule out Department of Justice involvement in state election certification under an extreme hypothetical scenario, while insisting he was not planning to interfere with the midterm elections.
Speaking to reporters in Virginia, Blanche said he did not want to make definitive claims about what the department might do in circumstances he could not predict. He described a possible “doomsday scenario” as an example of a situation that might prompt federal action. Blanche also said he was not organizing his schedule around preventing certification.
The remarks came as the Justice Department pursues election-related cases against states. In a news conference in Norfolk, Blanche was asked about litigation seeking unredacted voter information and restrictions on counting ballots cast by people the federal government says may be noncitizens.
Blanche said the department was not seeking to create disorder, but was trying to alert officials to possible eligibility problems. He said the goal was to ensure that only eligible voters cast ballots. The source material does not specify what extreme circumstances Blanche had in mind, or describe a plan by the department to block certification.
The department’s role in elections is limited by federal law and the Constitution, according to the source material. Elections are administered by state and local officials, while federal authorities primarily enforce civil-rights protections and prosecute violations of election law. The material says federal law does not expressly authorize DOJ to challenge ballots or delay a state’s certification of results.
California is among the states facing a federal lawsuit. The administration sued state election officials, arguing that they did not act quickly enough to review names the federal government identified as likely noncitizens. DOJ asked a judge to prevent the state from counting mail ballots from those individuals unless their eligibility was confirmed.
The California secretary of state’s office said it had been given 48 hours to review about 20,000 names. The case concerns the administration’s claims about voter eligibility; the source material does not establish that the people identified were ineligible or had cast ballots unlawfully.
The Justice Department was also considering further election-related litigation against states. Separately, a federal judge temporarily restricted certain election-related field operations and interviews in nine states through Election Day. The judge paused that order until Friday evening to allow the administration an opportunity to appeal.
Democratic leaders and election groups had filed a separate lawsuit earlier in the week, accusing the administration of “threats and intimidation” ahead of Election Day. Those allegations are claims in litigation, not findings established in the supplied material.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, responded to Blanche’s comments by saying Senate Democrats had prepared for months and would be ready for the administration’s actions. In a post on X, Schumer accused President Donald Trump and his allies of trying to steal the election and argued that elections should remain under voters’ control.
The dispute unfolds against Trump’s repeated assertions that noncitizen voting threatens election integrity. The source material notes that documented cases of noncitizens voting in federal elections have historically been rare. It does not provide figures or additional detail about the cases cited in the ongoing litigation.
