DOJ threatens to prosecute Fresno County elections officials in fight over noncitizens

Thaddeus Miller, The Fresno Bee on Oct 26, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

The Fresno County registrar of voters said his office is coordinating with state elections officials Monday after receiving a letter over the weekend from the Trump Administration demanding evidence that suspected noncitizens were registered as voters.

The administration sent letters demanding Fresno County and its counterpart elections offices across the state respond within 48 hours, agreeing to cooperate with the investigation.

Federal officials threatened to prosecute elections officials who do not cooperate if they “knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens,” according to a letter sent to California’s top elections officer signed by acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Trent McCotter.

Critics say it’s the latest effort by the Trump Administration to sew doubt in elections in California, a blue state.

The federal government has little say over county elections, which are mostly governed by state laws, according to James Kus, the Fresno County registrar. He said his office follows state and federal elections laws.

“We are reviewing the information in coordination with the Secretary of State and the Attorney General — the information and the request,” he said on Monday. “We’re going to continue to do our election processes as federal and state law require, and we’re going to continue to do our registration and registration list maintenance processes as federal and state law require.”

The threat of prosecutions followed DOJ demands that California set aside the ballots of 20,000 voters it determined to be noncitizens. Last week, McCotter sent a letter and a list of names to Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan, demanding they begin separating mail-in ballots sent to people on the DOJ list, The Sacramento Bee reported.

The Secretary of State refused, pointing to the timing and lack of an explanation on how the list was compiled. The U.S. Department of Justice sued, and Kus said he’s waiting to see the outcome of that lawsuit to determine how his office acts.

The alleged noncitizens were also mentioned Oct. 19 when three Fresno County residents among 11 Californians were arrested in an operation the Trump Administration said was aimed at rooting out voter fraud. That effort spurred its own lawsuit from voters rights groups.

Elections and legal experts say any attempt to prosecute election officials would face long odds in court. They argue the letter and arrests, sent less than three weeks before Election Day, are designed to intimidate officials and voters.

“It would be ludicrous for the feds to actually charge election officials, and if they did, the charges wouldn’t stick, for the simple reason that the election officials aren’t committing crimes,” said Justin Levitt, a constitutional law professor at Loyola Law School, in an email. “The good news is that election officials know this is an absurd form of bullying — and also know how to stand up to bullies.”

The election is a week from Tuesday on Nov. 3.

__________

(The Sacramento Bee contributed to this report.)