Newsom Says Trump “Is Not Screwing Around” as Feds Charge 28 in California Noncitizen Voting Sweep
California officials call the demand baseless. Secretary of State Shirley Weber said the federal demands “serve only to cause chaos and fuel public distrust in our elections,” adding that “California has robust state law requirements that only U.S. citizens can register to vote.” State officials say the Justice Department has lost more than two dozen straight court cases over voter-roll demands in the past year. The AP noted that noncitizen voting is rare and hard to prove, and has not been shown to change election outcomes. The Justice Department says it has charged 113 noncitizens nationwide in recent weeks, including a 72-year-old Belize-born man in California accused of voting illegally in four elections.
The administration is not backing down. “This causes real damage to real elections and real damage to American citizens,” McCotter said, according to the AP. He added that the 20,000 figure would likely rise, saying, “That’s just the floor.” President Donald Trump has gone further, writing on Truth Social that California officials “will all go to jail for a long period of time,” according to Democracy Docket. Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan pushed back, saying, “The U.S. Department of Justice has chosen to litigate their unverified assertions of voting eligibility.”
Newsom answered Trump directly at the New Hampshire rally. “He called for the criminal prosecution of me and others this morning on Truth Social,” he said. He urged Democrats to fight harder. “We’ve got to be more aggressive,” Newsom said. “We’re trying to win arguments; they’re consolidating power.” On Sunday, he posted on X, “A blue wave isn’t enough. We need a BLUE TSUNAMI.”
Why This Matters to You
Only American citizens can vote in federal elections, and every illegal ballot cancels out the vote of a lawful citizen. The Trump administration is using criminal charges, federal lawsuits and direct warnings to state officials to enforce that rule in the nation’s largest state. California mails a ballot to every registered voter, so the accuracy of its voter rolls matters well beyond its own borders when control of Congress is at stake.
The showdown also puts one of the Democratic Party’s most prominent governors, and a potential 2028 presidential contender, in direct conflict with the president 15 days before the November 3 midterm elections. A federal judge will now decide whether California must set those ballots aside. However the courts rule, this fight will test public trust in American elections and how far federal authority reaches into the way states run them.
