The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Monday that investigations into voter fraud in California have identified only 28 individuals who may have voted illegally. This figure represents a minute fraction—about one in 820,000—of the approximately 23 million registered voters in the state, underscoring the rarity of illegal voting. California Attorney General Rob Bonta commented that the findings confirm there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
These 28 cases, confirmed by federal prosecutors including Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, involve individuals who may have registered or voted improperly, but prosecutors have not alleged any coordinated efforts or connections to political organizations. Authorities continue to pursue legal accountability for those proven to have committed voter fraud.
Nationally, since the beginning of the current administration, a total of 169 people have faced federal charges related to illegal voter registration or voting. This total, which includes the 28 California cases, suggests that about one in 1.25 million registered voters have been implicated in such offenses, a rate experts characterize as extremely low.
Despite these findings, the DOJ has escalated tensions with California, filing a lawsuit after the state declined to comply with federal demands. The federal government provided California with a data set containing approximately 20,000 names suspected of being ineligible voters and demanded the state take action within 48 hours to exclude ballots associated with those individuals from the vote count. California officials rejected the deadline and the underlying premise, emphasizing states’ constitutional authority to manage their own elections.
The federal lawsuit asserts that California’s refusal to act on the list could violate the Supremacy Clause by impeding federal enforcement of voter fraud laws. However, legal experts and voting rights groups have criticized the federal data and methodology used to generate the suspect list. The list draws from the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, which aggregates information across multiple federal databases not originally designed for such cross-referencing and has been flagged by data specialists for inaccuracies and errors.
Advocacy organizations including the UCLA Voting Rights Project and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights have challenged the federal government’s use of SAVE data, arguing that it wrongly targets naturalized citizens. Naturalized voters represent a significant portion of the electorate, with nearly 25% residing in California alone. Critics say the federal approach amounts to voter intimidation, particularly in competitive districts such as California’s 22nd Congressional District, where fears of immigration enforcement may discourage eligible voters from participating.
Matthew Barreto, co-founder of the Voting Rights Project, described the current enforcement actions as harassment aimed at naturalized citizens who are legally qualified to vote. Observers warn that such tactics risk suppressing turnout and fueling claims of election fraud, further perpetuating political distrust during ongoing midterm elections.