Thumbnail photo by Heather Polen
Eleven days after the U.S. Justice Department announced that it was suing the State of California over its voter list, two DOJ agents showed up at the Del Norte County Elections Office, County Clerk-Recorder Alissia Northrup said today.
Northrup, who was elected to her fourth term in June, told Redwood Voice Community News, that the two federal agents were “just delivering a package.” Northrup said she consulted with Del Norte County Counsel Jacqueline Roberts, who indicated that they would release portions of the letter the county received.
The two DOJ agents showed up at Northrup’s office right after lunch.
“They were hand delivering these, I guess, to all the clerks in the state,” she said, adding that Roberts is asking the media, including Redwood Voice, to submit public records act requests for further information. “(The agents) were nice. They weren’t obnoxious or anything. They were basically doing their job.”
The DOJ’s visit to Del Norte County comes about a week before the Nov. 3 deadline in the 2026 midterm elections.
The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security filed a complaint against California on Oct. 15 stating that more than 20,000 people “who are likely aliens” are registered to vote, according to a DOJ press release.
In the news release, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin alleges that his office has reviewed publicly available California voter-registration files and compared “relevant records” with federal immigration data to “identify alien registrants.”
Mullin alleges that there are “a significant number” of individuals in the state who are “likely noncitizens and appear to be registered to vote.”
In a news release on Oct. 20, Office of California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber stated that it had filed its opposition to the DOJ’s demands, calling them a “reckless political stunt” at best and a threat to disenfranchise thousands at worst.
“Plaintiff’s sole claim — that a federal criminal prohibition on individual noncitizen voting preempts large swaths of California’s election administration — borders on the absurd,” Weber’s office states. “The relief plaintiff seeks is as unlawful as it is untenable.”
On Sunday, two of three judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals questioned the timing, constitutionality and authority of the Trump administration’s action, the Associated Press reported Monday.
The administration asked a federal judge to require the state of California to withhold counting ballots until the voters’ immigration status could be verified, the AP reported. The judge scheduled a hearing for Tuesday, but the Trump administration appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals seeking an expedited decision.
One judge, a Trump appointee, questioned if the appellate court had jurisdiction to hear a case before a lower court rules. Another judge, a President Joe Biden appointee, asked if the federal government was violating the Tenth Amendment by requiring the state to enforce a federal law that makes it a misdemeanor for someone who isn’t a U.S. citizen to vote, according to the AP.
In a conversation with Redwood Voice on Sept. 29 — after the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could deploy an online database that includes citizenship information — Northrup said she couldn’t just kick people off the voter rolls so close to an election. She urged people to cast their ballot early, especially if they plan to submit them via the U.S. Postal Service, or to bring it into the Del Norte County Elections Office or at any polling location in the county.
Voters can also track their ballot via Ballottrax.
On Monday, Northrup said Roberts would advise her and other Del Norte County officials on how to proceed when it comes to interacting with the DOJ.
