The Department of Justice has pressured states to investigate allegations of illegal voting by noncitizens.
Posted by The NPR Politics Podcast, Checked
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The NPR Politics PodcastOct 26, 2026
The Department of Justice has pressured states to look into allegations of illegal voting by noncitizens, and has moved to intervene in Alaska's upcoming U.S. Senate election. What is the department's goal, and what are the implications? …
The sources show the DOJ demanded that states act on its lists of alleged noncitizen voters, including a 48-hour deadline for Los Angeles County to investigate about 20,000 names and letters to five states. A federal judge later blocked some of these threats, but that does not undo the pressure that was applied as of 2026-10-26.
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What we found
Supports. The DOJ sent Los Angeles County election officials a thumb drive of about 20,000 names and demanded they investigate within 48 hours or face legal action, according to NPR's October 26 transcript.[3]
Supports. Reuters reports the Trump administration sent letters to election officials in five states saying it identified noncitizens on their voter rolls, and that the DOJ's October 13 letter demanded California not count ballots from about 20,000 voters without verifying citizenship.[1]
Supports. The Justice Department's own press release says it sued California after determining that more than 20,000 people who are likely aliens are registered to vote there, working with DHS.[2]
Context. The Atlantic and USA Today describe DOJ pressure on states to hand over voter information and to act on the lists, and note that state investigations found many of the flagged people were citizens or had been misidentified.[4][5]
Context. On October 31 a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking DOJ and DHS from demanding that states remove or withhold ballots based solely on the ineligibility claims. This is a later development and does not make the claim false as of October 26.[6]
Sources
6 sources: 1 fact-checker, 1 primary, 2 tier 2, 2 not rated
- 1Explainer: How Trump's noncitizen voter lists could affect the midtermsreuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 2Justice Department Sues State of California over Voter Listjustice.gov · primary source · cited for: supports
- 3The DOJ wades into elections with unprecedented casesnpr.org · tier 2 · cited for: supports
- 4DOJ's Try-Anything Approachtheatlantic.com · tier 2 · cited for: context
- 5Trump administration ramps up election cases days before voting endsusatoday.com · not rated · cited for: context
- 62026 midterms: Federal judge blocks DOJ threats against ...axios.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- The Justice Department sent letters to election officials in every state threatening them over non-citizen voting.True
- The Justice Department has brought 64 cases involving non-citizen voting.Mixed
- The Department of Justice has announced approximately 100 prosecutions for non-citizen voting.True
- The Department of Justice has threatened to charge state officials if they find election fraud or unauthorized voting.True
- The Department of Justice has charged more than a hundred non-citizens across about 20 states with voting and registration crimes in recent weeks.True