Following the recent election, federal officials signal their intention to maintain efforts to identify noncitizens on state voter rolls and pursue cases related to voting by non-U.S. citizens. U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche stated that the Justice Department will continue investigating election integrity cases both criminally and civilly regardless of election outcomes.
The administration’s push has included criminal charges against dozens of individuals accused of voting or registering without citizenship, though experts note that noncitizen voting remains exceptionally rare relative to overall voter numbers. Earlier in the year, federal officials claimed to have identified approximately 20,000 individuals they characterized as likely noncitizens on California’s voter rolls. The DOJ subsequently filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent the counting of ballots cast by voters whose citizenship had not been verified, but that lawsuit was rejected by federal courts at multiple levels.
However, recent court rulings have created significant legal obstacles for federal intervention in state voter list maintenance. Federal judges have found that the DOJ and Department of Homeland Security lack statutory authority to distribute lists of purported noncitizens to election officials and that such actions violate the Privacy Act. Another ruling vacated a DOJ project requesting unredacted voter rolls from states for comparison with federal databases. These adverse decisions have prompted legal experts to suggest the administration will face substantial difficulties in pursuing similar approaches going forward.
Several California counties received grand jury subpoenas in the days before the election requesting records related to how local officials responded to federal demands. Election officials and civil rights attorneys are preparing for continued federal pressure and investigation activities. Some local prosecutors, including those in San Luis Obispo County, have indicated they will pursue individual cases of alleged noncitizen voting that federal officials have flagged. Voting rights experts anticipate a limited number of actual prosecutions consistent with historical patterns of rare noncitizen voting incidents.
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