DOJ Serves Orange County Election Office With Grand Jury Subpoena a Day After Judge's Ruling; Carter Names Special Master

Since the Justice Department sued California and Los Angeles County in mid-October over 20,000 registered voters it calls "likely aliens," the fight has moved from civil court to a federal grand jury. The newest turn came Thursday, Oct. 29, one day after a judge rejected the department's emergency request.

A subpoena after the ruling

Federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security delivered a grand jury subpoena Thursday to the Orange County Registrar of Voters. It seeks unredacted voter records for 60 people, according to records obtained by CalMatters. The registrar's office told the Guardian that its subpoenas this week seek unredacted registration information for 77 possible registrants, and that it also received three in September. The two figures have not been reconciled publicly.

At least four California election workers have received criminal grand jury subpoenas over the past week, CalMatters reported. Three employees of the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's Office were ordered to testify before a grand jury on Nov. 4. Prosecutors told them to bring records on how the department keeps noncitizens from voting and any evidence "which tends to indicate an alien has voted in a federal election."

Bloomberg Law reported Thursday, citing two unnamed sources, that Justice Department leaders directed top federal prosecutors to pursue criminal subpoenas of state and local officials. The New York Times also reported on the investigation. The Justice Department has not publicly detailed the instruction.

What Carter ruled

Carter, a Clinton appointee, denied the emergency request Wednesday, Oct. 28. He wrote that the government's last-minute move would "wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway." He also questioned how reliable the department's evidence was that the flagged voters are noncitizens.

"Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch," Carter said. CalMatters described the order as warning prosecutors to stop threatening election officials with crimes.

On Thursday, Carter agreed to appoint a special master to evaluate the administration's claim that some noncitizens are on California's voter rolls. That keeps the underlying factual question alive even though the ballot request failed.

The Justice Department's position

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said the ongoing situation "disenfranchises American citizens through dilution." He said the Solicitor General authorized an immediate appeal, that a Notice of Appeal was filed, and that the office will seek an emergency order from the Ninth Circuit.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said Oct. 19 that the department "will not look the other way while noncitizens vote in federal elections." He said DOJ and DHS had tried repeatedly to engage the state in the months before Oct. 13. The department says Homeland Security Investigations and federal partners used "multiple data-enrichment and verification methods" to build the list.

The department also says it has charged 113 noncitizens across 20 states with illegal voting and registration offenses over seven weeks. "This is not a conspiracy theory," Essayli told reporters.

California's objections

County officials dispute the list. A preliminary state review found U.S.-born people and voters with no voting history among the names. Spot checks by counties found the list inaccurate, CalMatters reported. Only San Luis Obispo County has announced it will investigate the names from the department's demand letters.

Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan said the department has not provided the underlying evidence, source or methodology. The county says it received the list on a USB drive with a password on a sticky note at about 2:55 p.m. on Oct. 13, with a 9 a.m. Oct. 15 deadline to respond.

State officials also say compliance would be close to impossible now. Counties have already processed more than 500,000 ballots and separated them from identifying information, so they cannot reliably link votes to voters.

Logan called the department's approach "confrontational, adversarial" and said Carter's warning "was well placed and appreciated."

The 28 green card cases

Separately, federal prosecutors charged 28 legal permanent residents in California on Monday, Oct. 19. As of Thursday morning, charging documents had been filed in 10 of the 28 cases. The Justice Department says six face a misdemeanor charge of voting as a noncitizen. The other 22 face felony charges, including lying on naturalization applications or voter registration forms.

The penalties differ sharply. Illegal voting carries up to a year in prison. Lying on a citizenship application carries up to a decade.

The cases are not uniform. Prosecutors allege Alexander Muñoz, 72, registered falsely in 2019 and voted in 2020, twice in 2022 and in 2024. Pamele Arbues Line was arrested after her Oct. 15 naturalization interview. Charging documents allege she registered five times and submitted ballots.

José Antonio Bañuelos-Díaz, 42, a permanent resident for 40 years, is accused of claiming citizenship when registering in 2007. The government has not accused him of casting a ballot. He told the Associated Press he did not know he was registered until he was arrested, and recalls getting a driver's license around 2007. California prompts people to register when they apply for one. "If there was a mistake, they should have called me out right away, not 20 years later," he said.

What comes next

The Ninth Circuit has yet to rule on the emergency request Essayli said he would file. The Los Angeles County grand jury appearances are set for Nov. 4, one day after Election Day. A voter ID measure is also on California's November ballot.

The Justice Department has sued 30 states and the District of Columbia for voter data, and district judges have dismissed most of those suits. Whether prosecutors can build criminal cases from the subpoenaed records remains open once the votes are counted.