Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney for California’s Central District, said federal investigators have verified 20,000 people listed as likely noncitizens on California voter rolls and believe they received mail ballots for the November election. His office is seeking an emergency court order requiring the state to set aside ballots returned by people on the list. The allegations and the status of the ballots remain contested in ongoing court proceedings.
Essayli said the 20,000 figure is a current minimum, with more names potentially to be added. He also pointed to a July letter from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin that identified nearly 200,000 voters as possible noncitizens. According to Essayli, federal investigators have been reviewing those records to determine which individuals they can verify as noncitizens. He said each person on the current list was reviewed individually by employees of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Homeland Security Investigations.
The prosecutor’s office filed suit on Oct. 15, about two weeks after California began sending mail ballots, according to the federal government. Essayli said investigators could not know precisely which people would receive ballots until the state mailed them. On Wednesday, the Justice Department asked the judge to decide its emergency request by noon Thursday. Court records cited in the report show Los Angeles County had processed 331,000 ballots by that point.
California election officials have argued in court filings that county offices lack the authority and access to federal records needed to verify voters’ citizenship. They have also said setting aside ballots may not be possible after processing: once officials verify a ballot’s signature, they separate it from the identifying envelope and process it with other ballots, preventing it from being linked to a particular voter.
Los Angeles County assistant registrar-recorder Monica Flores said her office conducted an initial review of 200 records on the federal list associated with county addresses. She said 112 were tied to registrations that had been canceled or made inactive, so those individuals were not mailed ballots for the November election. In cases where birthplace was reported meaningfully, Flores said 38.9% of the sample indicated U.S. birth, which she described as strong evidence of citizenship.
Essayli challenged the county’s findings. He said his office believes the listed individuals likely received ballots and asked the county to identify the records it says were canceled. He also questioned reliance on birthplace information provided by registrants, arguing that it had not been independently verified. Essayli said it was unclear when the registrations were canceled and raised the possibility that some changes occurred after federal officials sent California the list.
The prosecutor said California could help investigators check citizenship by supplying additional identifying details, such as driver’s license and Social Security numbers where available. California and other states treat such information as confidential and have declined to provide it, according to the report. The Justice Department has brought lawsuits against multiple states over access to voter records.
A separate Justice Department lawsuit filed in September 2025 sought California’s complete, unredacted voter-registration database, including names, Social Security numbers, home addresses and voting histories. A district court ruled for California in January and dismissed the case, describing the government’s request as “unprecedented and illegal.” The Justice Department appealed, and that litigation is ongoing.
The California Secretary of State’s office and the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office did not immediately respond to the outlet’s requests for comment. The dispute over the current list and the handling of ballots is before a court; the material provided does not report a ruling on the emergency request.
