The Trump administration has issued more than 100 subpoenas seeking records on tens of thousands of voters in at least 13 states as it hunts for noncitizen voting before the November 3 midterms, according to a Reuters investigation published October 28.
Most of the subpoenas went to state and local election officials in the past three months, Reuters reported, though some date to early 2026. They range from requests about individual voters to demands for entire local voter rolls. None of the jurisdictions Reuters contacted said they were resisting.
Where the subpoenas landed
California has received at least 17, aimed at Democratic-leaning jurisdictions including Los Angeles and San Diego counties, along with previously unreported subpoenas to Marin and Fresno counties. Washington's secretary of state's office said it had received about 60 in recent weeks, and prosecutors there identified more than 400 apparent noncitizens on the rolls and asked officials to set their ballots aside.
In Massachusetts, a U.S. attorney used grand jury subpoenas on at least eight cities and towns, some seeking full voter lists. In Lynn, 25 to 30 people were subpoenaed. Minnesota's Anoka and Hennepin counties and Philadelphia also received subpoenas, and Reuters listed Texas, Kansas, Georgia, Arizona, New York, Connecticut, Utah and Michigan among the other states touched.
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis told Reuters, "Only Americans should be electing America's leaders." Paul Charlton, a former U.S. attorney for Arizona, called the subpoenas "clearly a distraction." Ben Berwick of Protect Democracy, a former Justice Department lawyer, said the investigations are "setting up" challenges after the vote.
The legal difference: grand jury versus agency subpoenas
At least 49 of the subpoenas were issued under grand jury authority, Reuters found. That matters. A grand jury subpoena is tied to a criminal investigation and is generally harder to challenge in court than an administrative subpoena an agency issues on its own. A records custodian who wants to fight one has to ask a judge to quash it.
Secrecy is a second issue. One Massachusetts letter urged recipients not to disclose the subpoena, Reuters reported, though doing so was not mandatory. The federal rule backs that reading. Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e) says "No obligation of secrecy may be imposed on any person except" those it lists, and the list covers grand jurors, court reporters, interpreters, government lawyers and similar insiders. A town clerk or a voter who receives a subpoena is not on it.
The underlying crime is narrow. The federal "voting by aliens" statute, 18 U.S.C. 611, makes it unlawful for a noncitizen to vote in a federal election and carries up to one year in prison. It has an exception for someone whose parents were citizens, who lived in the United States before age 16 and who "reasonably believed at the time of voting" that he or she was a citizen. Many recent cases are charged under other laws instead. The 28 California green card holders charged October 19 face counts of lying on naturalization paperwork and submitting fraudulent voter registrations, ABC7 reported.
The newsroom's math
Reuters counted at least 147 people accused since President Trump returned to office, 102 of them since early September. By our arithmetic, that means about 69% of the cases have come in roughly the last two months, the run-up to the election.
The early numbers have also shrunk under scrutiny. In Nevada, federal officials first pointed to nearly 16,000 potential noncitizens, then revised that to fewer than 200, Reuters reported, and state officials later concluded the rest were citizens. Fewer than 200 out of 16,000 is under 1.25% of the original claim. In California, state officials said a review of 200 names from the federal list of more than 20,000 found that nearly 40% appeared to be born in the United States. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter told Reuters of the California list, "We're not perfect."
What comes next
Legal experts told Reuters the records could be used to contest close results, though such challenges would be legally weak because most state laws let only losing candidates or voters contest an election. The department could still try to delay certification, the approach it has taken in its Alaska Senate lawsuit.
The courts have pushed back elsewhere. A federal judge largely halted Homeland Security voter field operations in nine states, which we covered in Judge Curbs DHS Hunt for Noncitizen Voters in Nine States, and the California ballot fight is now before Judge David Carter, as we reported in Appeals Court Tosses DOJ Bid on 20,000 California Ballots. Anyone charged in these investigations is presumed innocent.
Two Taps News stories summarize reporting and the analysis discussed on Two Taps and Friends. They are not legal advice. Read our standards.
