DOJ demands San Diego verify 1,709 voters before Tuesday

The Department of Justice sent a letter to San Diego County Registrar of Voters Shawn Brom on the day before the midterms. The document, signed by U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon, ordered Brom to verify the citizenship status of 1,709 local registered voters within 48 hours. Similar letters were sent to registrars in other California counties.

Gordon warned that if officials count ballots cast by people identified by federal agencies as noncitizens, those officials risk becoming aiders and abettors of a federal crime. This move follows a recent rejection by a federal appellate court of an emergency request to set aside the ballots of 20,000 California voters. The 1,709 names in San Diego were included on that larger list of people federal officials claim are likely noncitizens.

The legal dispute centers on the administration's claim that these voters are undocumented. San Diego County Counsel Damon Brown responded by accusing the Trump administration of attempting to unlawfully intimidate election officials and California voters. Brown stated that the county would consider its own legal remedies and argued that Gordon failed to follow proper procedure by not seeking a judicial warrant. Brown said the attorney lacked a sufficient evidentiary basis for the allegations.

U.S. District Judge David Carter had previously rejected a federal government request in this matter. On Wednesday, Carter maintained that the administration sought to coerce state and local governments to abandon their constitutional election procedures. Carter questioned why the Justice Department was suing the state over a list and targeting election officials rather than suspected individual vote fraudsters. The judge noted that the federal government recently arrested 28 people, including four in San Diego, on charges of illegally registering to vote or casting ballots despite not being U.S. citizens.

Carter said, “You got a remedy for goodness sakes, go out and indict.” The judge’s comments highlighted the legal tension between federal enforcement powers and state control over voter rolls. The Justice Department has continued its push by issuing grand jury subpoenas to at least three employees in the Los Angeles County registrar of voters office. Those employees are required to appear on Wednesday.

Local officials in San Diego, Los Angeles, and other counties have examined random samples from the federal lists. They found large numbers of people who had canceled their voter registrations, had no history of voting, or appeared to have been born in the United States. These findings have contributed to the county's decision to contest the federal demands.

The timing of the DOJ action coincides with a surge in federal immigration enforcement in the region. This operation, reportedly named Operation Safe California, has seen agents demanding citizenship verification from people at their homes and in public. Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla and San Diego’s Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security seeking information about the operation. A judge recently ruled that such field operations, conducted under the notion of uncovering voter fraud, had to be greatly restricted.

The administration’s moves to examine and trim voter rolls have faced scrutiny for months. Critics argue that the legal work by the Department of Justice suggests the goal is to raise doubts about the election rather than to win in court. According to The Week, Trump has publicly stated that elections were rigged or fraudulent on more than 70% of the days since his return to office.

The convergence of immigration enforcement and election challenges has led some national security officials to advise state governments on how to prepare for potential interference. The Washington Post reported that a small group of current and former U.S. national security officials has been quietly working with state leaders and members of Congress on this preparation. The DOJ’s letter to Brom represents the latest step in this dual effort to verify voters while increasing federal presence in local jurisdictions.