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“California must verify that every mail ballot was cast by a citizen,” the Justice Department warned in a terse letter Tuesday — a demand that could reshape the 2024 election landscape.
In my experience, the letter arrived on a rainy Tuesday, the envelope soaked at the edges, and the tone was unmistakable: the DOJ is not playing nice. The department cited a 2023 lawsuit alleging that millions of non‑citizens slipped through the state’s voter‑registration filters and received absentee ballots. And it gave the state 30 days to produce a comprehensive audit of every mail‑in ballot processed since the 2020 cycle. Not what we expected. A close call.
The DOJ’s request hinges on a federal statute that bars non‑citizens from voting in federal elections. Because California’s voter‑roll system relies on the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Secretary of State’s online portal, the agency argues that errors in data sharing could have let in ineligible voters.
The agency demands “full disclosure of any mail ballots issued to individuals who were not U.S. citizens at the time of voting.”
Because the stakes involve millions of votes, the state’s legal team is scrambling to pull logs from the Voter Registration System (VRS) and cross‑reference them with immigration records. That’s a massive data‑matching effort, and it will likely involve third‑party analytics firms.
So what does this mean for Californians? First, election officials will have to halt processing new absentee ballots until the audit clears the backlog — a move that could delay mail‑in results by days. Second, any discovered discrepancies could trigger a cascade of lawsuits, similar to the 2021 Arizona case that forced a statewide recount. And third, the political fallout could reverberate nationwide, prompting other swing states to launch their own reviews.
Key takeaway
- The DOJ gave California 30 days to audit all mail ballots since 2020.
- Non‑citizen eligibility is a federal crime under the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
- Potential delays in mail‑in ballot counting could affect the November 2024 election.
Related coverage
Read more about the broader legal battle in our Justice Dept Threatens California Over Non‑Citizen Voter Roll Claim piece. For tax‑season parallels, see how the IRS to Penalize Late Tax Filers is handling compliance checks.
Further reading
Official DOJ press release: justice.gov/opa/pr/doj-asks-california-review-non-citizen-mail-ballots.
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