Just one day before the 2026 election, when California voters will select a new governor, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it has charged six individuals living in Southern California on allegations that they voted illegally.
During a news conference on Monday, First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli said the six new charges bring the total number of defendants in "Operation Protect the Vote" to 34, as the federal government seeks to find noncitizen voters in California.
"Voting is the essence of American citizenship," he said. "Illegally attempting to infiltrate and influence our political determinations is not only wrong, it's a crime."
Those arrested and charged, all lawful permanent residents, or "green card holders," include the following:
All six individuals were charged with making false statements on their naturalization applications. They're expected to make their initial appearances in federal court on Monday.
They each voted in recent elections, federal prosecutors said.
Essayli claimed that the names of all 34 recently charged individuals appear on the list of about 20,000 people the Justice Department claims are registered to vote in California, but are not U.S. citizens.
On Monday, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to segregate the ballots submitted by individuals on that list. Last week, a federal appeals court declined to order California officials to set aside those ballots.
Essayli and the Justice Department said California was aiding in "widespread voter fraud" by refusing to address their concerns with the list. The press office for California Gov. Gavin Newsom has pushed back, pointing out that officials said fewer than 120 people have been charged with such crimes nationwide.
"The Trump [administration] completely upends their "widespread voter fraud" claims by admitting they have only charged 113 people across 20 states," Newsom's office said in a post to X on Oct. 19.
The state of California has more than 23 million registered voters.
The Trump administration has made election security a priority since the president retook office in January of 2025, repeating false claims that he won the 2020 election.
