L.A. County rejects Trump demand to purge voters from secret list Play

L.A. County voting officials have been warned by the Trump administration that they may face arrest unless they use a secret list of names compiled by the Trump administration to check for illegal voters. The answer from L.A. County is that would be illegal. Voters cannot be stricken from the list of eligible voters based on vague secret lists provided on a federal thumb drive without any backing information.

A letter from an assistant U.S. attorney in Washington was delivered to Los Angeles County on Friday. It says that officials at the L.A. County Office of Registrar Voters are at risk for knowingly facilitating violations of federal criminal statutes unless they follow the White House commands.

The United States Constitution clearly places the running of elections in the hands of state officials. Federal officials do have the right to enforce immigration law, but immigration law does not include meddling with state elections.

"See you in court," says L.A. elections chief Dean Logan. "The U.S. Department of Justice has chosen to litigate their unverified assertions of voting eligibility. At this point it's best for this to be addressed in court."

The Associated Press reports that the Justice Department has in the last two years charged 50 people with voting as non-citizens. Most of those people have been acquitted. There are 227 million registered voters in the U.S. who cast ballots in 2024.

California officials refused last week to even open the thumb drive that was provided by federal prosecutors — the thumb drive that reportedly lists California people who are illegally registered to vote. There's been no explanation from Washington who compiled the list, how it was compiled, or who is on it.