Justice Department gives California 48 hours to review alleged noncitizen voters

On October 15, the Associated Press reported that a Justice Department letter sent on October 13 gave California 48 hours to review a federal list of alleged noncitizens sent mail ballots and warned of emergency litigation if unverified ballots were not segregated. California officials questioned the legal authority, data quality and security of the password-protected thumb drive used to transmit the list; the federal letter did not state how many names were flagged. The demand creates immediate litigation and operational risk three weeks before the November 3 election, despite California’s earlier success resisting disclosure of detailed voter data on state-privacy grounds. For law firms and clients, the episode is a reminder that election risk now includes government data provenance, secure transfer and identity-matching controls, not only constitutional and administrative-law questions.