Northern California counties hit with subpoenas over alleged noncitizen voting ahead of midterm elections

November 4, 2026 / 1:55 PM EST / CBS News

Several counties in Northern California were hit with fresh grand jury subpoenas over alleged noncitizen voting just days before the midterm elections, local officials told CBS News.

Officials from both Santa Clara and Sonoma counties told CBS News they each received a subpoena issued by a grand jury at the behest of federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District of California.

CBS News has reached out to the Justice Department for comment. The subpoenas were previously reported by Bloomberg Law.

The subpoenas are the latest effort by the Justice Department to pressure California to set aside some 20,000 ballots that it claims were mailed to potential noncitizens ahead of Tuesday's election.

State and local officials have declined to do so, saying they have concerns with the accuracy of the federal government's list and fear that segregating the ballots could disenfranchise legitimate voters.

While the Justice Department's civil lawsuit seeking ballot segregation was ultimately rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court shortly before the election, the DOJ has pursued parallel criminal investigations that have seemingly expanded in recent weeks to focus not just on individual noncitizens who may…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/world/