DOJ charges 28 in California as voter roll lawsuit escalates

The confrontation began with a short deadline. On October 13, the Justice Department gave California officials 48 hours to review a list of alleged noncitizen voters or face legal action, according to Reuters.

The demand went beyond checking registrations. Axios reported that federal officials wanted California to investigate potentially ineligible voters and set aside ballots from anyone whose citizenship officials could not verify.

The list identified people the federal government suspected were noncitizens. That is not the same as an established finding that everyone listed was ineligible or had voted illegally.

On October 14, The Hill reported that a voting rights group had threatened to sue the Justice Department unless it withdrew its demand that California voting authorities cross reference their records with information supplied on a USB drive.

By October 15, the dispute also involved how officials could safely access that information. ABCNews.com reported that the Los Angeles County Clerk would refuse to access the thumb drive said to contain names of potential noncitizens on the registration list.

The Justice Department sued California on October 15. The administration asked a judge to bar the state from counting mail ballots from people it considered likely noncitizens, according to The New York Times. Axios described the requested restrictions as covering about 20,000 voters' ballots.

On October 16, the administration escalated its warning to local officials. Associated Press reported that officials processing and tabulating ballots submitted by suspected noncitizens could face prosecution. President Trump repeated the threat of criminal charges, The Hill reported on October 17.

On October 19, the confrontation widened to criminal cases. NYT Politics reported that the Justice Department charged 28 California residents with voting related crimes. The Independent reported a sweep targeting more than two dozen foreign nationals whom authorities accused of illegally registering and voting.

The civil lawsuit seeks restrictions on counting mail ballots. The newly reported criminal cases concern allegations against individual residents. The supplied coverage does not establish how those defendants relate to the larger list in the lawsuit, or report a court ruling granting the requested ballot restrictions.

There is also a discrepancy in the reported size of the list. Axios described about 20,000 voters, while The Hill referred to more than 200,000 people in its October 17 report. The supplied reports do not resolve that difference.

The criminal allegations do not, by themselves, establish wrongdoing by everyone on the federal list. Nor does the supplied coverage report convictions in the newly announced cases.

The immediate legal issue is whether a judge will grant the administration's request to restrict ballot counting, and what verification would be required before any affected ballot could be counted. That matters with early voting already underway, as CBS Top Stories reported on October 18.

The criminal cases raise a separate set of pending issues: what prosecutors can prove against each defendant, and whether the cases substantiate any part of the broader allegations about California's voter rolls.