US attorney accuses California of blocking voter roll audit

Federal prosecutors have accused California of denying them access to voter registration records, as a larger legal battle over voter roll maintenance unfolds in federal court.  

First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli announced Saturday that his office was partnering with the FBI on multiple election fraud investigations. 

In a social media post on Sunday, he said that California was refusing to comply with a federal request for voter registration records, which the DOJ said was needed to audit the state’s vote. 

“We also have serious concerns about how California maintains its voter rolls. There are open questions about whether the state is promptly removing deceased voters, people who have moved, and individuals convicted of disqualifying felonies,” he wrote on X, asking, “What are they afraid of?”  

Essayli said that California’s voting system allows voters to register using ID that “most Americans find surprising,” such as gym membership cards, employer ID cards, credit/debit cards, prescription drug labels, and insurance cards, noting that California provides free health coverage to undocumented immigrants.

California also allows third parties to collect and submit ballots on the voters’ behalf, making it “difficult to track who actually received, completed, and submitted each ballot,” Essayli said. 

The dispute comes from a lawsuit filed by the DOJ against California Secretary of State Shirley Weber. Essayli said that the lawsuit to force the hand-over of the state’s voter registration rolls was now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. 

He also said the Justice Department has been trying to audit California’s voter rolls for more than a year  and that federal law gives the U.S. attorney general authority to review voter files and confirm that only eligible U.S. citizens were voting in federal elections. 

Federal officials have argued that they have authority to review state voter registration records according to the National Voter Registration Act, the Help America Vote Act and the Civil Rights Act.

Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department's assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, also sent a letter to California in August 2025 demanding a full electronic copy of the statewide voter registration list, including voter names, dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license information or the last four digits of Social Security numbers, when applicable. 

The letter also requested copies of voter registration applications from Dec. 1, 2023 to July 1, 2025, and said that failure to comply could result in legal action. 

California’s election system has serious structural vulnerabilities," wrote Essayli in another X post. "Universal vote-by-mail with no voter ID requirements creates conditions where fraud can go undetected and unpunished, eroding public confidence."

Last week on Truth Social, President Donald Trump accused the election in California of being stolen, saying there was “BIG cheating” by California Democrats. 

“Votes are all tied up. May not be in for weeks,” he wrote.

In California, mail-in ballots are counted as long as they are either dropped off in person by 8p.m. on Election Day, or postmarked by Election Day and received by county election offices by the following Tuesday. 

State law allows election officials to begin processing mail-in ballots as soon as they receive them, a window that opens 29 days before the election when ballots are first mailed out to voters. This year, officials began receiving them on May 5. Voters also have up to 22 days to fix any signature errors on the arriving ballots, with a full 30 days to finish the count.

As of Monday, more than 4.2 million mail-in ballots were returned and accepted by the state. According to The Associated Press, 56% of the vote was counted, with GOP candidate Steve Hilton leading with 27.6 percent of the vote, and Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra following with 25.6 percent.