California Blocks Federal Vote Audit

California is resisting a federal effort to audit its voter rolls, setting up another fight between state officials and the Trump administration over election oversight and voter confidence.

Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, said Sunday that his office wants a closer look at California’s election system, especially after critics raised questions about late-counted ballots that helped Democratic candidates in several races.

In a post on X, Essayli pointed to California’s rules for first-time voters, saying the state allows some people to register using forms of identification that “most Americans would find surprising.” He listed health club membership cards, employee identification cards, credit or debit cards, prescription drug labels and insurance cards as examples.

Those forms of ID are allowed under California regulations in limited situations, mainly when a voter does not provide a driver’s license number or Social Security number during registration.

“Our office believes this policy deserves a closer look,” Essayli wrote. “If California genuinely wants voters to trust its elections, it should open its records, not fight to keep them closed. What are they afraid of?”

Essayli also questioned whether California is properly maintaining its voter rolls by removing people who have died, moved out of state or been convicted of disqualifying felonies. He raised concerns about ballot collection, often called ballot harvesting, which allows third parties to collect and submit ballots on behalf of voters.

“California allows third parties to collect and turn in ballots on voters’ behalf with few restrictions,” Essayli wrote. “This makes it difficult to track who actually received, completed, and submitted each ballot.”

The federal government has been trying for more than a year to obtain California’s statewide voter registration list as part of a review of the state’s compliance with federal election laws.

Essayli shared an August 2025 letter from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber. In that letter, federal officials requested access to the state’s voter registration records, saying they were reviewing California’s compliance with the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.