The Department of Justice requested that California election officials review a list of potential non-citizens within 48 hours and segregate the ballots of those whose citizenship cannot be confirmed.
Posted by Philip Teresi, Checked
- Sources
- 8 support1 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 92%
Philip TeresiOct 16, 2026
Multiple tier-1 and tier-2 outlets (AP, Reuters, NBC News, The Hill, NYT) report that the DOJ gave California election officials 48 hours to help identify potential noncitizens on a list and to segregate, not cancel, the mail ballots of those whose citizenship could not be confirmed.
What was said
… the DOJ had provided Logan's office with a password-protected thumb drive with a list of names the federal government believes are likely non-citizens who were sent a vote-by-mail ballot. Anybody want to take a guess if there's a single Collins on that list? Quote "We request that you review the list within 48 hours to determine whether any citizens are listed. For individuals whom you cannot independently confirm citizenship status, we request that you immediately instruct the appropriate elections officials to segregate, not cancel, those individuals vote by mail ballots until their citizenship status can be determined." This was in letters to both Weber and Logan. Voters on the federal list who haven't already been sent a ballot should not be sent one until their citizenship is verified. …
Philip Teresi · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. The AP reports a DOJ letter from Trent McCotter to Secretary of State Shirley Weber gave the state 48 hours to determine whether any citizens were on a list of likely noncitizens, and to have local officials segregate mail-in ballots of those whose citizenship could not be verified.[1][6][7]
Supports. NBC News reports the DOJ's letter to Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan demanded review of the list by a deadline and described the ballot segregation request.[8]
Supports. Reuters, The Hill, NBC News and the New York Times report DOJ letters sent to California counties with the same 48-hour request and the 'segregate — not cancel' instruction for individuals whose citizenship cannot be confirmed.[2][3][4][5]
Context. Reuters and NBC describe the later letters as signed by Bilal Essayli and warning of 'significant federal scrutiny' and legal exposure; the DOJ also filed suit over the list, per ABC News.[2][4][9]
Sources
9 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 1 tier 1, 2 tier 2, 4 not rated
- 1Justice Department threatens California over claim of noncitizen votersapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 2US Justice Dept demands California counties help identify suspected noncitizen votersreuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports, context
- 3DOJ demands California counties identify noncitizen voters: Reportsthehill.com · tier 1 · cited for: supports
- 4DOJ demands that California counties help identify ...nbcnews.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports, context
- 5Justice Dept. Demands That California Counties Help Identify Noncitizen Votersnytimes.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports
- 6DOJ threatens California with legal action over claim of noncitizens on voter rollsdenver7.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 7DOJ gives California 48 hours to review list of alleged ...fortune.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 8DOJ threatens legal action against California over alleged ...nbclosangeles.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 9Federal appeals court hears arguments in Trump administration's ...abc7.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
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- The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit seeking to block the counting of 20,000 non-citizen ballots in California.True
- The U.S. Justice Department sued the State of California and Los Angeles County to segregate ballots associated with 20,000 individuals identified as likely non-citizens.True
- The Department of Justice has requested that California segregate the ballots of the 20,000 individuals on the provided list and not count them until they are investigated.True