The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued grand jury subpoenas to election workers in Southern California as part of a federal investigation into the state’s voter rolls. The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office confirmed on Thursday, October 29, 2026, that employees received subpoenas last week, while the Orange County Registrar of Voters received a similar subpoena on Thursday. The federal government is seeking information regarding efforts to identify noncitizens on voter registration lists just days before the November 3 midterm elections.
These subpoenas follow a series of legal actions by the Trump administration, which has stated that California's voter rolls contain thousands of "likely" noncitizens. Federal prosecutors, including those in the office of Los Angeles-based prosecutor Bill Essayli, previously sued the state and Los Angeles County to force them to set aside ballots from 20,000 flagged individuals. Local election officials have challenged the accuracy of the federal lists, reporting that spot checks found the names provided by the government to be inaccurate.
In Los Angeles, at least two employees were ordered to appear in court on November 4, the day after the election. The subpoenas request documents concerning internal communications with California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and records of screening methods for unlawful voting. In Orange County, the Department of Homeland Security is seeking unredacted records for 60 individuals. DOJ spokesperson Kiersten Pels stated that receiving a subpoena does not necessarily mean an individual is the target of a criminal investigation.
A person working in a California election office will notice a concrete shift in their day-to-day duties as they must now gather unredacted voter records and internal communications for federal agents while simultaneously managing the November 3 election. The legal pressure includes warnings from the DOJ that officials could face criminal "aider and abettor" charges if they knowingly tabulate ballots cast by noncitizens. This sets a precedent for direct federal intervention in state-run election procedures, an action U.S. District Judge David O. Carter described in a Wednesday order as a first in American history.
The knock-on effects involve the immediate workload of local registrars and potential legal costs for counties defending their election procedures in court. While the DOJ is currently appealing a lower court ruling that denied its request to stop processing the 20,000 ballots, the grand jury testimony is scheduled to begin on November 4. The outcome of these investigations and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling will determine whether the federal government can compel states to change their ballot-handling processes during an active election cycle.
On Wednesday, October 28, 2026, Judge Carter denied a DOJ request to stop the processing of the 20,000 ballots, stating the government lacked a legal basis and its list was not shown to be reliable. He warned federal prosecutors that "threats" to election workers must stop. The DOJ has appealed this ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Meanwhile, federal prosecutors last week charged 28 people across California with registering to vote despite not being U.S. citizens.