Feds ask Contra Costa County to verify citizenship for hundreds of registered voters
on November 1, 2026
The Contra Costa County Elections Division says it cannot comply with a U.S. Justice Department demand that the county verify the citizenship status of 407 registered voters it identified as potentially ineligible.
On Oct. 23, two federal officials hand-delivered a letter from U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian to the Contra Costa County Elections Division, identifying 407 people as “likely aliens” and gave the county 48 hours to determine which individuals were U.S. citizens.
The letter threatened legal action if election officials did not immediately sequester ballots returned by voters the federal officials believe might not be citizens. It warned of potential criminal consequences for those who knowingly tabulate ballots identified by federal agencies as noncitizens.
Dawn Kruger, the spokesperson for the Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder-Elections office, said the county determined the 48-hour deadline was unenforceable. The inquiry arrived 11 days before Election Day, after the county had begun processing mail-in ballots.
“We follow federal and state laws,” Kruger said. “If we were to divert from that, we might actually be breaking the law.”
On Wednesday, the elections office told Missakian it could not comply with the inquiry, nor would the county set aside any ballots.
Richmond mayoral candidate Ahmad Anderson said the threat of voter suppression is real.
“I have the utmost faith in our elections and that they’re being carried out correctly by the voter registrar’s office,” Anderson said. “If you live here in Richmond, we will fight for you.”
Mayoral candidate Claudia Jiménez did not respond to requests for comment.
The federal inquiry is part of a broader Justice Department initiative targeting California voters whom federal officials have alleged may be noncitizens.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter rejected the Trump administration’s effort to prevent Los Angeles County and California election officials from counting approximately 20,000 ballots associated with people identified by the federal government as noncitizens.
Carter, a Clinton appointee, warned the administration’s request “would wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway, create a chilling effect on election workers and voters alike, and discount the votes of United States citizens.”
Civil rights advocates have questioned the accuracy of the federal data and warned the initiative could discourage eligible voters from participating.
ACLU launches legal challenge
Bill Freeman, senior counsel at the ACLU of Northern California, said the organization believes the federal government’s data is inaccurate and its process for compiling voter information is flawed. Freeman said the initiative could create fear among immigrants, naturalized citizens and people in mixed-status households, who may worry about being investigated despite being eligible to vote.
“Even if they know they have every right to vote, they might be targeted and charged or accused of not being entitled to vote,” Freeman said.
That concern extends beyond the individuals identified by federal officials, he said, potentially affecting broader communities.
The ACLU of Northern California filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, seeking to stop the federal initiative. The lawsuit argues the government is using unreliable information and improperly pressuring election officials to withhold or discard valid ballots.
According to the lawsuit, the Department of Homeland Security has acknowledged its database contains potentially inaccurate Social Security numbers and that it incorrectly assigned multiple immigration identification numbers to some individuals. It said the databases can produce false matches based on similar names and incomplete records.
DOJ will monitor elections
More broadly, the Justice Department says some of its employees will be monitoring elections, though the department has not said where.
Eric Neff, acting chief of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division voting section, said in a court filing Wednesday that the department is monitoring the election to ensure compliance with the law. In the court document, which was in response to an NAACP lawsuit filed under the Freedom of Information Act, Neff said unarmed Justice Department volunteers from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Federal Prisons Bureau will serve as election monitors. No FBI or Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will be involved, he said.
Neff said monitors have been trained in observing, note-taking and “interviewing willing voters outside the polling place about their voting experience, where appropriate.” They will not be acting as law enforcement personnel, he said.
Kruger said voters should feel confident about participating in the election.
“We want people to vote,” she said, “and they should vote and do it the way that they want to and feel confident that their vote will be counted.”
(Top photo, courtesy of Contra Costa County)
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