DOJ attempted to stop more than 1,300 Riverside County ballots from being counted

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KESQ) - The Justice Department's emergency bid to stop California from processing more than 20,000 ballots from suspected non-citizens included more than 1,300 ballots in Riverside County.

In a letter dated Monday, Oct. 26, Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in the Los Angeles area, gave Riverside County Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco 48 hours to "commit to working with the DOJ and DHS to identify who on the accompanying list is a citizen and who is not."

"For individuals whom citizenship status cannot be confirmed, we request that you immeditely instruct the appropriate elections official to segregate-not cancel-those individuals' vote-by-mail ballots until their citizenship can be determined," Essayli wrote.

Riverside County responded on Thursday through the Office of County Counsel, citing the logistical impossibility and the court rejecting the DOJ's bid on Wednesday.

"In light of the Court’s order issued on October 28, 2026, and the logistical impossibility, the ROV is unable to segregate the 1,355 ballots of named individuals as requested," writes a letter to Essayli from County Counsel.

Check Out: Congress members tour Riverside County Registrar ahead of Election Day

The DOJ sued California on Oct. 15, more than a week after mail ballots were sent to all registered voters, demanding it set aside 20,000 ballots from alleged non-citizens after the state refused to voluntarily sequester those votes.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter rejected the DOJ's bid, saying it "would wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway, create a chilling effect on election workers and voters alike, and discount the votes of United States citizens."

"The Executive Branch cannot replace the remedy Congress carefully enacted with its own unlawful and unconstitutional solution instead. Eroded trust in our democracy is irreparable. Once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred,'' Carter wrote in a 26-page order Wednesday.. "If the Executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger. This Court declines to be a party to such process."

The judge said election officials have until Dec. 3 -- the date by which election results must be certified -- to resolve the issue, suggesting there was no immediate need for a last-minute temporary restraining order.

The DOJ filed renewed its bid with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals late Wednesday, seeking a ruling by Friday.

In opposition to the administration's TRO demand, Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan argued they lack the mechanisms and legal authority to freeze mail ballots until voters' citizenship can be verified.

"Voting is already underway in Los Angeles County,'' the motion states. "Ballots have been mailed, returned and processed, and election officials are working toward fixed deadlines for counting and certification. Plaintiff United States of America, through the Department of Justice ... now asks this court to interrupt that work and enjoin the withholding of 20,000 registered California voters' ballots pending investigation based solely on an unreliable voter roll maintenance list.''

Weber's office said federal officials claimed in July that California had 190,000 non-citizens on its voter rolls. When her office asked for evidence, "They refused and provided California with nothing."  

The Trump administration has long alleged that large numbers of non- citizens were casting ballots in California and elsewhere, but officials have not provided proof or documentation of widespread fraud.  

Also on Wednesday, the San Diego County Registrar of Voters refused a request from the DOJ to set aside the ballots of 1,709 San Diego County voters who federal officials allege are non-citizens.  

A letter signed last week by San Diego U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon requested the ballots be left uncounted until the voters' citizenship status could be verified, while hinting at "legal consequences'' if votes ended up cast for non-citizens.

The Orange County Registrar of Voters told Essayli in a letter Wednesday that the federal government's request of a list of 1,754 individuals prosecutors allege are likely non-citizens is "impracticable and potentially disenfranchising'' because the election is already underway.  

The letter from county counsel Leon Page said that latest demand was "vastly more expansive and burdensome" than last year's request for confidential voter information, which was rejected by Carter and was being appealed.

Prosecutors demanded that the 1,754 potential votes be put aside and not counted, but the county has received more than 360,000 votes so far.   

Page added, "There is currently no streamlined process established for flagging any of the 1,754 individuals that may appear in the (Orange County) voter database and segregating their ballots, and such a process would require substantial time and effort to develop, test and implement.''

Officials estimate it would take "several hundred man hours of effort'' to do the work, Page said. And that's aside from overseeing the election, he said.

Essayli has repeatedly threatened to prosecute election officials if they don't meet the DOJ's demands to set aside ballots until citizenship status is confirmed. "Knowingly processing non-citizen ballots is a federal crime ... We will hold election officials accountable,'' he recently posted on X. "No one is above the law."