This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.
By Dion Nissenbaum
Votebeat
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Less than three weeks before Election Day, the Trump administration filed an election lawsuit against the state of California, claiming the state has ineligible voters on the rolls. Then came a lawsuit against Alaska last week, alleging potential voter confusion. And on Monday, another legal threat against Washington state.
The Trump administration’s aggressive legal strategy in the runup to Election Day seems more likely to encourage public uncertainty over the midterm elections than succeed in court, experts say. It also fuels their concerns that the White House could try to challenge election results President Donald Trump does not like.
“This is new, in the closing weeks of an election, to be bringing these kinds of claims and doing it in a way that sort of threatens to disrupt the process as it’s unfolding,” said Rebecca Green, a law professor at William and Mary Law School who co-directs the Election Law Program. “Once people start voting, it becomes a new phase that it’s dangerous to venture [into].”
The Trump administration’s legal threats against Democratic-run California and Washington allege election officials are not doing enough to keep suspected noncitizens off the voter rolls. Both states predominantly rely on mail ballots.
There are few competitive congressional races in either state. But Trump has a long track record of repeating false claims about elections, and has especially targeted both mail ballots and California’s elections, frequently suggesting they cannot be trusted.
In a very different kind of case, which Trump said he personally ordered, the U.S. Department of Justice has sued in Alaska to block certification of that state’s pivotal U.S. Senate race if the incumbent, Republican Dan Sullivan, loses by a narrow margin. Sullivan is in a tight race with Democrat Mary Peltola. The Trump administration alleges that the presence of another candidate named Dan Sullivan on the ballot could cause voter confusion that taints the results.
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said Trump was focused on ensuring the election is free and fair.
“Radical Democrats refuse to implement basic election security measures like voter ID and citizenship verification, to ensure only Americans are electing America’s leaders,” Bis said. “No one has done more than President Trump to ensure we have free and fair elections.”
The California litigation is farthest along, and has so far drawn scathing responses from federal courts.
The Justice Department launched the legal challenge two weeks ago when it sent California officials a demand that they set aside as many as 20,000 ballots from potential noncitizens in the ongoing midterm election to check and see if they are eligible to vote. It quickly filed a lawsuit when California officials pushed back on the demands, and a federal appeals court issued a swift ruling on Monday that challenged the Trump administration’s central claims.
California officials who have begun examining the lists of voters provided by the Justice Department say it is flawed. Several county officials said it includes voters who aren’t currently on the rolls, and others who list U.S. birthplaces, a factor that makes them very likely to be citizens.
“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,” Judge David O. Carter wrote in his ruling. “In bringing this lawsuit, the Executive would have this Court believe that it reigns as a sole sovereign. But California and its people are sovereign, too.”
In Alaska, the federal judge handling the case has expedited action as he considers the Trump administration lawsuit. The state of Alaska has asked the judge to dismiss the case, arguing that the federal intervention could “gravely threaten the integrity of the electoral process.”
At issue in Alaska is the presence on the ballot of the second Dan Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher and one of four candidates voters will consider for the Senate seat. Alaska is one of two states to use a ranked choice voting system in federal races, which allows voters to rank their preferences and for election officials to reorder the votes until one candidate wins a majority.
The Trump administration says confused voters may cast ballots for the wrong Dan Sullivan, though the Republican is labeled as the incumbent on the ballot. It is asking federal courts to block certification of the race if the incumbent senator loses by a narrow margin that can be traced to the presence of the second Dan Sullivan on the ballot.
On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that Democratic operatives tied to Peltola’s campaign helped recruit and support the retired schoolteacher in an effort to dilute the vote for the incumbent senator. In response to the story, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, said he ordered an investigation.
“Mary Peltola should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “A FRAUD ON THE AMERICAN PUBLIC, and Dan Sullivan should be allowed to run without either Mary Peltola or FAKE Dan Sullivan on the Ballot.”
The Justice Department also took aim this week at Washington state, directing officials to separate as many as 400 ballots that it said could be cast by alleged noncitizen voters. The Justice Department’s letter bore indications it was hastily prepared, including incorrectly listing the date of Election Day. It gave officials until Wednesday afternoon to comply.
Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs rebuffed the request after an initial check by his office determined that the list contained the names of U.S. citizens.
“Without individualized proof of ineligibility, it would be both irresponsible and illegal for election officials to decline to process a registered voter’s ballot,” Hobbs wrote in a response to the Justice Department.
Michael Alvarez, a political science professor at the California Institute of Technology, said his biggest concern is that the Trump administration is trying to lay the groundwork for post-election disruption.
“What I’m most worried about is that they might be setting the stage for ultimate interference later on as we get through Election Day,” Alvarez said Tuesday during a Votebeat panel.
“My biggest concern is that after the election, we’re going to hear concerns about slow counting, we’re going to hear concerns about glitches, we’re going to hear concerns about other kinds of problems that people claim happened, and unless they get debunked quickly, a lot of those are going to spiral out of control,” Alvarez added.
“This Department is following the facts and the law, not anyone’s political timetable,” Justice Department spokeswoman Kiersten Pels said in response to the concerns.
Pels noted that the Biden administration had sued Alabama and Virginia before the 2024 presidential election to stop them from removing suspected noncitizens from their voter rolls.
“To the legacy media, that’s called protecting democracy,” she said. “When this Department acts to keep noncitizens from voting, it’s called election interference. That’s a double standard. Enforcing election law right before an election is exactly when it matters most and voters deserve to know their elections are being protected.”
The challenges in court have coincided with a highly publicized series of arrests of alleged noncitizens accused of illegally voting, or registering to vote. The Justice Department has announced criminal charges against 48 people in five states this month as part of “Operation Protect the Vote.” The Trump administration notified journalists of some of the arrests so they could cover the operations in real time.
“Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a lawful American citizen,” said Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter.
Dion Nissenbaum is Votebeat’s senior national reporter and is based in Houston. Contact Dion at dnissenbaum@votebeat.org.
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