Federal authorities on Monday charged 28 foreign nationals with election-related crimes in California, including illegally registering to vote and, in some instances, casting ballots in past elections. The Justice Department labeled the sweep “Operation Protect the Vote” and called it the largest voter fraud prosecution in state history.
The arrests come as the Trump administration separately sued California over its refusal to segregate ballots cast by voters whose citizenship status is in question. Last week the administration suggested at least 20,000 noncitizens may be on the state’s voter rolls.
California’s election system has drawn scrutiny for its lax safeguards. The state automatically registers some voters and maintains sanctuary immigration policies, both of which critics say make it harder to verify who is actually eligible to cast a ballot. Investigators have also documented homeless voters in Los Angeles’s Skid Row area who say they were paid small sums to vote for specific mayoral candidates, as well as thousands of voter registrations tied to addresses of temporary homeless shelters that receive mail-in ballots automatically each election despite limited capacity and frequent turnover.
Ballot harvesting, in which political operatives collect and submit large numbers of completed ballots on behalf of others with minimal oversight, remains legal and widespread in California. The state is also known for taking weeks to finish counting ballots after Election Day, a delay that has repeatedly overturned apparent Election Night results as late-arriving mail ballots are tallied.
State Officials Push Back
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office mocked the federal operation in a series of posts on X. Attorney General Rob Bonta was similarly dismissive, telling reporters the case amounted to “a drop in the bucket” given the state’s 23 million registered voters.
“28 out of 23 million registered voters in California is just a drop in the bucket numerically. It’s…” — California Attorney General Rob Bonta, reacting to the DOJ charges
Supporters of tighter election rules argue the dismissive response misses the point: the charges confirm that noncitizens have in fact registered and voted in California, something state officials have long downplayed.
Voter ID on the Ballot
California voters will decide the fate of Proposition 39, a Voter ID measure, on the Nov. 3 ballot. The proposal would require voters to show identification when voting in person, or to write the last four digits of an ID number on the envelope when voting by mail.
Backers say the requirement would tie every ballot to a verified voter, make it harder for noncitizens to vote, and complicate large-scale ballot harvesting by requiring operatives to obtain each voter’s ID number before collecting and submitting ballots. Opponents of Voter ID laws have argued such measures can suppress turnout among eligible voters.
The vote on Prop. 39 comes as the federal government’s lawsuit over uncounted noncitizen registrations and Monday’s criminal charges continue to play out, keeping California’s election procedures under national scrutiny heading into November.
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