Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) stated on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026, that the state of California is "guilty" of ballot harvesting. Appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation," Tillis told host Margaret Brennan that the state has a "system there that is ripe for abuse" and argued that the state's election policies require scrutiny.
The remarks follow an Oct. 15 lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against California. The department is seeking to prevent the state from counting ballots linked to approximately 20,000 individuals whom federal officials suspect may not be U.S. citizens. The DOJ previously gave California officials a 48-hour deadline to set aside these ballots for review by the Department of Homeland Security.
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) and other state officials have disputed the federal government's claims, questioning the reliability and methodology of the data used to flag the voters. Newsom stated last week that the administration is attempting to "rig the election" and improperly obtain the state's voter rolls. Los Angeles County officials argued that reviewing ballots on this scale could lead to the disenfranchisement of eligible voters.
On Sunday, Oct. 25, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on an emergency request by the Trump administration to block the state from counting the disputed ballots. The panel did not issue an immediate ruling, though two judges questioned the court's authority to intervene before a lower court ruling and whether the federal government could dictate state election administration.
The DOJ has also charged 28 individuals, alleged to be among the 20,000 flagged names, with illegally registering or voting while not being U.S. citizens. Bill Essayli, a federal prosecutor in Southern California, stated that the department identified these individuals by comparing federal records with registered voter lists, noting that processing noncitizen ballots is a federal crime.
The scale of the dispute involves 20,000 flagged records out of millions of registered voters in California. For the individuals on this list, the change would be a delay or potential rejection of their vote unless citizenship is verified. The DOJ has already moved forward with criminal charges against 28 of these individuals for illegal registration or voting. Legal representatives for California and Los Angeles County have stated that the process of separating and reviewing these ballots on such a scale could disrupt election operations and potentially disenfranchise eligible citizens who were incorrectly flagged by the federal government's data.
The case involves the extent to which the federal government can intervene in state-run elections and mandate the use of federal citizenship data for voter roll maintenance. Beyond California, the DOJ has also filed a preemptive lawsuit in Alaska to block the certification of votes if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses. A federal district court hearing on the California matter remains scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, while the 9th Circuit panel indicated it would attempt to rule on the emergency stay request quickly.