Court filings offer fresh breadcrumbs suggesting the Trump administration’s challenge to thousands of California voters could extend to other states, Democracy Docket reported Wednesday.
The documents appear to connect California’s disputed list of alleged noncitizen voters to a nationwide screening initiative described by a Department of Homeland Security whistleblower, reporter Jacob Knutson wrote.
“That matters because the DHS process described by the whistleblower scrutinized voters nationwide, not just Californians,” Knutson reported.
Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias highlighted the implications on X.
“The DHS process described by a whistleblower strongly indicates that the Trump administration has lists — with all the flaws the whistleblower described — on several states, and potentially all states,” Elias, a voting rights attorney, posted on social media.
Elias sounded the alarm after Democracy Docket connected the whistleblower’s account to court declarations dated Oct. 19 and Oct. 26.
In those filings, DHS official Nicolas Bartell described matching California voter records with immigration files and supplementing the information with commercial database records.
The new details overlap with the whistleblower’s account, according to the Wednesday report. The official alleged officers faced daily review quotas and had to flag people even when they doubted the data.
“In other words, the current process is knowingly sweeping known US citizens in as potentially 'unlawful voters,'” the whistleblower said, according to Democracy Docket.
The effort already extends beyond California. On Oct. 26, a federal prosecutor demanded Washington officials set aside potential ballots from 405 people DHS flagged as noncitizens.
“That strongly suggests this process can be applied to any other state the Trump administration decides to target,” Knutson warned.
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