{"id":2793,"date":"2026-09-21T11:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T11:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/thestates\/2793\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T11:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T11:57:08","slug":"despite-court-wins-california-election-war-with-trump-rages-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/thestates\/2793\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite court wins, California election war with Trump rages on"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With the deadline for mailing out millions of California ballots nearing, Los Angeles County\u2019s top election official welcomed the U.S. Postal Service\u2019s recent assurance that it will process those ballots as normal \u2014 not under the untested new vetting system backed by President Trump and rejected as unworkable by the U.S. Supreme Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat certainly serves as a stabilizing force, as we\u2019re literally weeks away from mailing the ballots,\u201d said Dean Logan, head of the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder\/County Clerk\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Still, there are other Trump administration challenges to deal with<\/a>, he said \u2014 including unsubstantiated public claims of widespread voter fraud, refusals by top-ranking officials to rule out deployments of armed federal agents to polling places, and behind-the-scenes criminal probes into local voter lists.<\/p>\n

Since March, Logan\u2019s office has received a series of federal grand jury subpoenas demanding voter registration and other information on dozens of individuals who the Trump administration says may not be U.S. citizens, Logan confirmed to The Times.<\/p>\n

Logan said his office is now in the \u201cinteresting place\u201d of having to comply with the subpoenas despite suspecting that the Department of Homeland Security relied on inaccurate or outdated voter information to compile the names to investigate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re responding appropriately as directed through a subpoena, but that doesn\u2019t afford the dialogue for us to get the background on what they\u2019re looking for and how they came up with the names that they did,\u201d Logan said. \u201cThere\u2019s really no information being provided to us on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The subpoenas appear to mirror others received by elections officials elsewhere in the country<\/a> as part of a new Homeland Security effort to identify noncitizen voting, which Trump has long alleged without evidence is widespread.<\/p>\n

In July, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin publicly claimed, again without evidence, that there may be more than 190,000 such voters on California rolls. On Friday, the Justice Department announced<\/a> it had charged 16 noncitizens in six states with illegal voting and other election-related crimes following investigations alongside its Homeland Security partners.<\/p>\n

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber dismissed Mullin\u2019s claims. Independent elections experts and Democratic officials say voter fraud should be taken seriously, but is exceedingly rare. California has more than 23 million registered voters.<\/p>\n

Mullin\u2019s remarks and the subpoenas appear part of a much larger and unprecedented federal effort to bolster allegations from Trump that the upcoming Nov. 3 elections are unsafe and corrupted by noncitizen voters.<\/p>\n

Trump issued two executive orders, one requiring voters to provide additional identification and proof of citizenship, and one ordering the Postal Service to refuse mail ballots it deems illegitimate. The Justice Department has sued California and other states for their voter rolls, and Homeland Security has threatened state elections officials with criminal sanctions if they don\u2019t purge noncitizens from their rolls.<\/p>\n

Trump gave a speech in July alleging that the American election system is \u201cso vulnerable that no one can possibly defend it.\u201d Earlier this month, he encouraged his supporters to \u201ccheat like hell\u201d to keep Republicans in power, and told them they would receive $5,000 each if they succeed \u2014 which many experts derided as a \u201cbribe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, FBI Director Kash Patel refused to rule out<\/a> sending federal agents to polls.<\/p>\n

Despite all that, California officials and independent elections experts have maintained the election will be safe \u2014 in part because Trump\u2019s executive orders and the Justice Department\u2019s many lawsuits seeking state voter rolls have all been blocked by the courts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bottom line for voters in California right now is nothing has changed. We\u2019ve had safe and secure elections, and we will continue to do so,\u201d said Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.).<\/p>\n

Logan said it \u201cis clear that the administration is aggressively pursuing their narrative\u201d about voter fraud being widespread as part of Trump\u2019s old \u201cplaybook\u201d of questioning votes he expects to lose \u2014 but that the election in California will nonetheless \u201cbe fair and secure and transparent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fight over fraud<\/p>\n

At least three subpoenas have been issued to Logan\u2019s office \u2014 one in March, one in July and one this month \u2014 including from the U.S. attorney\u2019s office for the Southern District of California, The Times confirmed. <\/p>\n

U.S. Atty. Adam Gordon, who leads the federal prosecutor\u2019s office in San Diego, did not respond to a request for comment. First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, who leads<\/a> the federal prosecutor\u2019s office in Los Angeles and has announced<\/a> two voter fraud cases in recent weeks<\/a>, also did not respond to questions about his office\u2019s election work.<\/p>\n

Essayli did say Saturday, in response to Gov. Gavin Newsom touting new state laws<\/a> aimed at safeguarding California elections from Trump administration interference, that no state law can prevent the Justice Department from investigating voter fraud and that his office \u201cwill continue to investigate, arrest, and prosecute all violations of federal election laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional information, including how the subpoenas may relate to Mullin\u2019s claims, wasn\u2019t immediately available. <\/p>\n

Mullin in July alleged in a letter to Weber that a federal review of unspecified data found \u201cas many as 190,832 non-citizens registered to vote in California.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weber responded in writing that she had \u201cserious doubts about the reliability\u201d of that analysis, as California election officials \u201cwork every day to maintain accurate voter rolls\u201d and have never shared their rolls with the Trump administration \u2014 despite the administration\u2019s failed lawsuit<\/a> demanding them.<\/p>\n

Weber criticized Mullin for having made such claims with \u201cno detail whatsoever that my office can use to evaluate the veracity of your allegations,\u201d and asked that he provide a \u201cdetailed description\u201d of the data and methodology used to reach such conclusions.<\/p>\n

Weber\u2019s office said Mullin\u2019s letter was \u201cpart of a broader effort to intimidate Californians and make it burdensome to participate in our democracy.\u201d <\/p>\n

In a statement to The Times, a Homeland Security spokesperson said the department offered to meet with Weber and her staff \u201cto engage in a collaborative good faith discussion\u201d about identifying noncitizens on state rolls, which she declined.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said Mullin\u2019s count of potential noncitizens on California rolls was based on \u201cpublicly available data from states\u2019 voter rolls\u201d that was cross-referenced with its own lists of \u201cknown\u201d noncitizens. \u201cIt\u2019s not rocket science; it\u2019s an easy step to secure our elections.\u201d <\/p>\n

Independent experts also have questioned Mullin\u2019s claims, pointing to investigations elsewhere \u2014 including in Texas<\/a> \u2014 that found Homeland Security data on alleged noncitizen voters were substantially inaccurate. A federal judge recently blocked<\/a> the use of a Trump administration database known as the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program based on the likelihood that it could lead to legitimate voters being purged from rolls.<\/p>\n

Last week, Padilla and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) released a Homeland Security whistleblower report alleging that department leaders, under a new \u201cUnlawful Voter Initiative,\u201d were requiring poorly trained employees to identify at least five potentially illegal voters per hour \u2014 one every 12 minutes \u2014 using questionable data the department said it compiled using \u201cmagic.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a letter to Mullin, the senators demanded the initiative be halted, arguing that work at such a \u201cbreakneck pace\u201d is bound to produce errors and that agency officials appeared to be circumventing court orders blocking their access to state vote rolls by gathering such information \u201cby any means, regardless of state laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

Padilla on Friday asked California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta\u2019s office to investigate the whistleblower\u2019s claims. A spokesperson for Bonta\u2019s office said the allegations \u201cdescribe yet another fishing expedition by the Trump Administration to uncover evidence of widespread voter fraud despite repeated findings that there is none,\u201d but otherwise declined to comment.<\/p>\n

The Homeland Security spokesperson rejected the whistleblower claims, saying its work has been \u201cconducted diligently and professionally\u201d as part of a \u201ccommonplace law enforcement\u201d effort. The spokesperson said that the agency cannot comment on active investigations, but that its investigative branch \u2014 Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI \u2014 is \u201cactively rooting out and investigating election fraud wherever it can be found.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no quota on criminality. DHS will pursue each and every illegal voter to the fullest extent of the law,\u201d the spokesperson said. <\/p>\n

Fears and reassurances<\/p>\n

Recent polling has shown that fewer than half of Americans<\/a> expect the midterms to be \u201cfree and fair,\u201d and that Californians are more concerned<\/a> about Trump administration interference than voter fraud.<\/p>\n

Election experts said some of the worst threats have already been blocked, but acknowledged remaining worries.<\/p>\n

Rick Hasen, director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA Law, said he is concerned the Trump administration will try to deny the outcome or seize ballots in close congressional races \u2014 but only if control of the House or Senate rests on them.<\/p>\n

Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College and co-director of Bright Line Watch, said he worries that isolated incidents of federal agents intimidating voters or seizing ballots in key races will throw the legitimacy of the entire election into question \u2014 and that the Trump administration will capitalize on that to serve its own agenda.<\/p>\n

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), part of a Democratic task force preparing for such issues, said that Trump and other administration officials are trying to interfere in the election because they know they have \u201cfailed to deliver for the American people\u201d and the Republican Party stands to lose power as a result.<\/p>\n

Schiff said that Democratic leaders are fighting back \u201cand largely succeeding,\u201d but that \u201cthe best way to uphold the integrity of our elections\u201d remains voters making their voices heard.<\/p>\n

Padilla said the attempt by Homeland Security to push its way into elections has been \u201cshoddy\u201d in part because \u201cthey don\u2019t have the expertise [and] it\u2019s not their charge,\u201d but also because Trump has put Mullin<\/a> and other election \u201cconspiracy theorists\u201d in charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you install a conspiracy theorist into these roles, then they\u2019re gonna come out with these claims that are not based on facts, not based on evidence, not based on any data,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Padilla said Trump and his supporters are \u201cabsolutely laying the groundwork\u201d to question November election results they don\u2019t like, but voters should know that \u201cthere\u2019s even more of us standing up and fighting back and protecting their right to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the deadline for mailing out millions of California ballots nearing, Los Angeles County\u2019s top election official welcomed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[53,4080,4078,4077,4074,4073,4070,4075,547,4071,2524,63,4079,4076,4072],"class_list":["post-2793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-ballot","tag-california-roll","tag-claim","tag-dean-logan","tag-homeland-security","tag-mullin","tag-noncitizen","tag-office","tag-other-trump-administration","tag-part","tag-president-trump","tag-subpoena","tag-weber","tag-widespread-voter-fraud"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117308911915581084","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/thestates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/thestates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/thestates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/thestates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/thestates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/thestates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/thestates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/thestates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/thestates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/thestates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}