A woman wears earrings depicting US President Donald Trump during a Republican voter turnout event ahead of the midterm elections in The Villages, Florida, US, October 18, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
MARIA ALEJANDRA CARDONA
As Americans head to the polls on
Tuesday for midterm elections, lists the Trump administration
has compiled of possible noncitizen voters could be used to
contest the validity of the results.
With US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party fighting
to maintain control of Congress, here’s how the lists could
affect the midterms.
WHAT HAS THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SAID ABOUT THE LISTS?
The Trump administration has acknowledged sending letters to
election officials in five states — California, Washington, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania and Nevada — as of October 30, saying it
identified noncitizens on their voter rolls, according to a
Justice Department document seen by Reuters.
In an October 13 letter, the Justice Department demanded
California not count ballots from about 20,000 registered voters
“who federal agencies reasonably believe are likely noncitizens”
without first verifying their citizenship, warning that election
workers who processed them could face prosecution. Trump
endorsed the warning on social media: “They will all go to jail
for a long period of time!!!”
State officials rebuffed requests to set aside ballots of
people on the lists, which have not been made public. The
Justice Department is now suing California to block the state
from counting any ballots from the list of 20,000 voters.
California says its safeguards against noncitizen voting are
robust.
Noncitizen voting is illegal and can lead to jail time,
fines and deportation. The White House says noncitizen voting is
a significant problem requiring aggressive enforcement to
protect election integrity. Trump has long alleged it is
widespread, but available evidence indicates it is exceedingly
rare. A Reuters investigation in July found just 129 cases in
which noncitizens were federally charged with voting illegally
since a federal “voting by aliens” statute was created by
Congress in 1996; many appeared to stem from confusion or
administrative errors rather than intentional fraud.
The Justice Department has since ramped up noncitizens
voting prosecutions. “Close elections are not rare, and every
illegal ballot cancels out the vote of an American citizen,” a
Justice Department spokesperson, Kiersten Pels, said in a
statement. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed
without evidence in a Fox News interview on Saturday that his
agency had found 300,000 noncitizens on the voter rolls.
HOW DID THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION COMPILE THE LISTS?
The federal government has no centralized list of US
citizens who are registered or eligible to vote. But the Trump
administration has aggressively sought state voter data to
expand its role in determining voter eligibility.
States have constitutional authority over federal elections
and many states make voter rolls public with private
information, such as driver’s license numbers and the last four
digits of Social Security numbers, redacted.
The administration has sought unredacted rolls to identify
alleged noncitizens. At least 16 states, including Alabama and
Texas, have complied voluntarily. Thirty states, including
California and New York, as well as Washington, D.C., have not
complied and have been sued by the administration for their
voter rolls. Courts have rejected 27 of those efforts so far,
with many judges finding the federal government has no role in
determining voter eligibility.
The Justice Department has appealed many of those losses.
“Voters have a right to accurate voter rolls, and states
shouldn’t be hiding them from federal review,” said Pels, the
department’s spokesperson.
The Department of Homeland Security obtained at least
partial voter-roll data from at least 47 states, typically
including names, addresses and registration status and, in some
cases, additional information such as dates of birth, according
to a recent internal DHS email reviewed by Reuters. Federal
investigators then matched the voter data against government
databases to identify potential noncitizens, the email shows.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment. It has said
its investigations are conducted professionally and lawfully to
safeguard election integrity.
WILL THE LISTS IMPACT THE MIDTERMS?
The lists could provide a basis for challenging close
election results, even if the administration struggles to
prevail in court. Under most state laws, only candidates or
voters can challenge election results, but a losing candidate
could argue that suspected noncitizen votes made it impossible
to determine the rightful winner, three legal experts told
Reuters. And the Justice Department could pursue other legal
avenues to try to block certification of victors. The Justice
Department has said it will enforce the law wherever the
evidence leads.
Such challenges would face significant legal hurdles, partly
because reviews of the administration’s lists of
potential noncitizen voters have found that many people on the
lists are US citizens.
On October 28, a federal judge in California rejected the
Justice Department’s bid to block ballots from 20,000 voters it
identified as likely noncitizens, saying the move would “wreak
havoc” on the November 3 elections and questioning the
reliability of the list. A federal appeals court upheld the
ruling on October 30, citing a “material risk” of
disenfranchising eligible voters.
The Justice Department would “probably” appeal to the US
Supreme Court, acting US Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter
said on Fox News on Saturday. He has acknowledged the California
list could include US citizens.
The lists and resulting challenges could cast doubt on
narrow Democratic victories and prompt Trump-aligned state
officials to seek further review or try to delay certification,
though such efforts would face formidable obstacles, the legal
experts said. The administration says its efforts are aimed at
identifying and prosecuting illegal voting and protecting
election integrity.
Published on November 1, 2026
