The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to set aside more than 20,000 suspected ballots tied to suspected noncitizens in California.
The request comes after lower courts ruled against the Justice Department’s earlier request to segregate the mail-in ballots cast by suspected noncitizens in the days leading up to the midterm election.
During a news conference Monday, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli emphasized the urgent need for the high court to weigh in before Election Day on Tuesday, saying there’s a possibility noncitizens could sway the vote.
“There are many close elections in our system here. We have elections that are decided by less than twenty votes within recent memory here in California,” Essayli said. “So every vote does matter. It doesn’t take many illegal votes to corrupt our elections, and every single one of the 34 people charged so far are all people who are on the list that we provided to the state of California.”
“Our goal is not to charge all 20,000 people, our goal is to get California to not count the votes of noncitizens,” he said.
California has refused to work with the Federal Government to protect against noncitizen voting, which dilutes lawful votes, so @TheJusticeDept has filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court to require California to segregate mail-in ballots associated with more than 20,000 likely noncitizens until their citizenship can be verified.
We will continue pursuing every available legal avenue to protect the integrity of our elections and ensure federal law is enforced.
— Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter (@PADAGMcCotter) November 2, 2026
Essayli clarified that the last-ditch attempt “does not mean” the ballots “won’t be counted … It means that we’ll have an opportunity to present our evidence in court and make a determination on whether those ballots are legal or not.”
“We’re not waiting for that injunction; we’re moving forward with criminal prosecutions,” Essayli said.
Essayli also announced that the Justice Department charged six green card holders who allegedly registered to vote or voted in federal elections.
One of the accused is an Iranian national who allegedly voted twice in 2024 before applying for citizenship earlier this year.
Another is a Canadian citizen who allegedly voted in the 2022 and 2024 elections. The foreigner allegedly submitted a voter registration cancellation request in 2025, when he acknowledged his ineligibility to vote.
Later, the Canadian national allegedly applied for citizenship and lied in the application process, claiming to have never registered or voted in any elections.
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To date, the Trump administration has charged 34 noncitizens with election-related crimes. All 34 are included on the list of 20,000 suspected noncitizens, Essayli said.
Five of the six suspects charged in the latest group were in custody as of Monday afternoon.
“These are individuals identified and provided to California election officials previously in our list of suspected noncitizen voters,” Essayli said.
“Illegally attempting to infiltrate and influence our political determinations is not only wrong, it’s a crime. It’s both a federal crime and a state crime,” he said.
Dan Dow, District Attorney of the County of San Luis Obispo, announced local charges against one of the noncitizens. He emphasized that California authorities must take election integrity seriously.
“If we as state and local prosecutors ignore this problem and don’t enforce the law, we may as well just erase that requirement of citizenship from our constitution,” Dow said, adding, “If you’re not a United States citizen, do not cast a ballot whether you’re registered or not.”
“Election integrity is not a Republican or a Democrat issue, it is an American issue and a Californian issue,” he said.
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