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California voter citizenship suit

News · Heat 5.4 / 10 · 9 shows · 1h 20m airtime

On October 15, 2026, the Justice Department gave California 48 hours to verify voter citizenship and threatened suit over mail-in ballots, then delivered 20,000 L.A. County names and moved to segregate those ballots under 18 U.S.C. 611, the Supremacy Clause and a 1973 Mississippi desegregation case, challenging no state law. The DOJ has charged 28 people from the list, at least eight for allegedly voting more than once, and McCotter's letter threatens election workers who process the ballots. Of 64 reviewed cases, at least 56 defendants are lawful permanent residents and only four are in the country illegally. Marc Elias's firm intervened for Mi Familia Vota, Schumer and Jeffries countersued over federal authority, and a Trump-appointed Utah judge barred the…

How 9 podcasts covered it

  1. The Breakfast Club, 2026-10-15 (4:11 to 9:03)
    Leads with the DOJ's 48-hour citizenship demand
    Leads its headlines with the Justice Department's 48-hour citizenship verification demand and Newsom's response, then moves to Georgia early-voting records and record-high gas prices.
    New angle: The Justice Department gave California 48 hours to verify voter citizenship or face a federal lawsuit over mail-in ballots.
  2. Up First, 2026-10-16 (9:12 to 12:57)
    Adds the DOJ flash drive and segregation suit
    Reports the next step in the standoff: the DOJ delivered a flash drive of 20,000 names to L.A. County with a 48-hour deadline, California refused, and the DOJ sued to segregate those ballots. Adds the post-it-note password, the clerk's and secretary of state's refusals, and the 26-of-26 record on voter-roll suits.
    New angle: The DOJ delivered a flash drive of 20,000 names to L.A. County with the password on a post-it note, then sued to segregate those ballots.
  3. The Breakfast Club, 2026-10-16 (0:48 to 3:04)
    Opens on the DOJ suit against California
    Opens the episode with the DOJ suit against California: the thumb-drive list, the sticky-note password, the 48-hour deadline, and Shirley Weber's and Rob Bonta's pushback, including the Nevada check that cleared every flagged voter.
    New angle: Homeland Security's earlier claim of 190,000 non-citizens on California's rolls is now down to 20,000.
  4. Legal AF by MeidasTouch, 2026-10-18 (56:46 to 1:00:07)
    Questions where the 20,000 names came from
    Marc Elias walks through the DOJ complaint against California: it cites 18 U.S.C. 611 and the Supremacy Clause but challenges no state law, and he asks where the 20,000 names came from and whether the government's conduct violates a Common Cause order in D.C.
    New angle: The DOJ complaint cites 18 U.S.C. 611 and the Supremacy Clause but challenges no California law.
  5. Legal AF by MeidasTouch, 2026-10-19 (0:11 to 1:13)
    Previews the voting rights special
    Opens a pre-midterm voting rights special by introducing Marc Elias and flagging two fresh suits: the NAACP's election-monitor case and the DOJ's suit against California over voter rolls and mail ballots.
    New angle: The Justice Department sued California over voter rolls and mail ballots, with a 48-hour deadline.
  6. Legal AF by MeidasTouch, 2026-10-19 (1:47 to 3:52)
    Details the DOJ suit and intervention
    Marc Elias details the DOJ suit: filed out of the Deputy Attorney General's office, it demands California remove or suspend 20,000 voters and not count their ballots, after a two-day deadline. He says his firm intervened for Mi Familia Vota and warns the blueprint will spread.
    New angle: Marc Elias's firm intervened for Mi Familia Vota in the DOJ's suit to remove 20,000 California voters.
  7. Legal AF by MeidasTouch, 2026-10-19 (3:52 to 5:50)
    Questions the 20,000-name list's origin
    Elias questions where the 20,000-name list came from and who would verify it, and raises a conflict: the California action may violate a court order in a Common Cause case in Washington, D.C.
    New angle: The California action may violate a court order in a Common Cause case in Washington, D.C.
  8. Legal AF by MeidasTouch, 2026-10-19 (5:48 to 7:59)
    Argues the DOJ theory is thin
    Marc Elias reads the complaint itself and finds its legal theory thin: it leans on a criminal non-citizen voting statute and the Supremacy Clause, neither of which fits a challenge to California, plus a 1973 Mississippi desegregation case. He predicts the DOJ loses.
    New angle: The DOJ complaint rests on 18 USC 611, the Supremacy Clause and a 1973 Mississippi desegregation case.
  9. Legal AF by MeidasTouch, 2026-10-19 (7:59 to 9:23)
    Picks apart the likely-not-a-citizen phrase
    Picks apart the complaint's phrase 'likely not a citizen,' with Elias saying it reflects an unexplained database query, and asks whether California is the first state where the list has been taken to court. Stays inside the filing already on the record.
  10. Start Here, 2026-10-20 (10:40 to 17:37)
    Adds the 28 charges and McCotter's letter
    Walks through the California letter, the 48-hour deadline and the suit, then adds the next step: the DOJ charged 28 people from the 20,000-name list, and a second letter from Trent McCotter threatens to prosecute election workers who process those ballots.
    New angle: The DOJ charged 28 people from the 20,000-name list, and McCotter's letter threatens to prosecute election workers who process those ballots.
  11. Up First, 2026-10-20 (9:24 to 13:06)
    Reports the DOJ emergency motion on ballots
    Reports the DOJ's emergency motion filed the day before, asking a federal court to force California and L.A. County to segregate the 20,000 ballots now. Adds that the 28 charged are green card holders and that election officials in other states are bracing to be next.
    New angle: The DOJ filed an emergency motion to force California and L.A. County to segregate the 20,000 ballots.
  12. The Dan Bongino Show, 2026-10-20 (32:50 to 35:29)
    Adds repeat-voting detail to the charges
    Plays McCotter's announcement of the 28 California charges and adds detail the earlier coverage did not have: at least eight of the defendants allegedly voted more than once, some in the 2026 primary. Also reads the New York Post's framing of the bust.
    New angle: At least eight of the 28 California defendants allegedly voted more than once, including in the 2026 primary.
  13. The Fox News Rundown, 2026-10-23 (0:42 to 3:29)
    Adds the Schumer and Jeffries countersuit
    Opens the episode with a recap of the California suit and adds the Democratic leadership countersuit by Schumer and Jeffries, plus Blanche's Thursday comment that he would look at any state. Stays inside the week's coverage otherwise.
    New angle: Democratic leadership including Schumer and Jeffries countersued to challenge the federal government's authority over the voter roll demands.
  14. The Fox News Rundown, 2026-10-23 (3:29 to 7:19)
    Predicts judges will split the ballots
    Bream walks through the constitutional tension between state election authority and federal oversight, then predicts judges will soon have to decide whether disputed ballots are segregated. She notes the DOJ's arrest push and the states' claim that many flagged names were born in the U.S., but adds no new development.
  15. Legal AF by MeidasTouch, 2026-10-25 (30:40 to 41:58)
    Argues the feds are 0 for 27 on voter data
    Walks through the DOJ's pre-midterm election litigation state by state: the collusive Alaska decertification suit that Peltola intervened in, the California thumb drive of 20,000 names now at the Ninth Circuit, and the Utah ruling barring the federal database in nine states. Argues the feds are 0 for 27 on voter data and that states run elections.
    New angle: A Utah federal judge banned the federal voter database in nine states, and the feds are 0 for 27 in cases seeking state voter data.
  16. Pod Save America, 2026-10-25 (21:02 to 25:09)
    Cites Nevada's flagged list shrinking to zero
    Holder walks through the California segregation demand and says there is no legal precedent for federal involvement in a state's vote count. He points to Nevada, where a flagged list of about 19,800 shrank to zero, and argues the numbers are a pretext for casting doubt.
    New angle: In Nevada, a flagged list of about 19,800 voters was whittled down to zero.
  17. The Rest Is Politics: US, 2026-10-26 (15:32 to 20:55)
    Adds the Trump-appointed Utah judge
    Runs through the wider DOJ voter-roll campaign around the California suit: the Postal Service ballot-screening attempt, suits against 30 states, and Homeland Security investigators hunting illegal voting. Adds that the Utah judge who threw out the rolls case on Friday was a Trump appointee, and that Democratic AGs and secretaries of state are running tabletop exercises.
    New angle: The Utah judge who threw out the DOJ voter-roll case on Friday was appointed by Trump.
  18. The NPR Politics Podcast, 2026-10-26 (0:55 to 7:49)
    Reviews 64 case files and finds most are lawful residents
    Reviews 64 of the DOJ's non-citizen voting case files and finds at least 56 defendants are lawful permanent residents, only four are in the country illegally, and a Florida judge this month held the alien-voting statute unconstitutional.
    New angle: Of 64 reviewed cases, at least 56 defendants are lawful permanent residents and only four are in the country illegally.
  19. Legal AF by MeidasTouch, 2026-10-29 (1:01:00 to 1:10:09)
    Details LA County's spot check of 200 names
    Walks through the DOJ suit against California's secretary of state and Judge Carter's three-hour hearing: the unreliable federal databases, LA County's 200-name spot check finding US-born and never-voting voters, and Carter's push for a special master and an order the next day.
    New angle: LA County's spot check of 200 names on the 20,000-voter list found numerous US-born voters and people who had never voted.
Unpacking...