Fact vs. Spin: Is Trump "Rigging the Rules" in California? Here Is What the Justice Department's Lawsuit Actually Asks
Gov. Gavin Newsom says President Trump is "suing California over our voting rolls" and "STILL trying to rig the rules in his favor." The first half is true. We read the federal complaint to test the second.
By Clara Hughes
ALTAS WORLD NEWS ANALYSIS | MIDTERM FACT VS. SPIN | By Clara Hughes, Chief Opinion Editor | 6-min read Midterm Fact vs. Spin #3. Altas World News is independent and not affiliated with any campaign or party. No campaign reviewed or directed this piece. On Sunday afternoon, California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted a warning to his followers on X. By early Monday it had drawn more than 76,000 views [1]. "Donald Trump is suing California over our voting rolls and STILL trying to rig the rules in his favor," Newsom wrote. "This is not normal. And we cannot afford to sit back and pretend it is" [1]. It's one of the loudest Democratic attack lines of the weekend. So we went to the source: the 15-page complaint the U.S. Justice Department filed in federal court on Oct. 15 [2][3]. Key Takeaways "Suing California over our voting rolls": TRUE. The Justice Department sued California, Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County's top election official on Oct. 15 [2][3]. "Rig the rules": SPIN. The suit doesn't ask to change California's voting rules. It asks a federal judge to hold back the mail ballots of about 20,000 people that two federal agencies flagged as likely noncitizens, until their citizenship can be verified [3]. Federal law already bars noncitizens from voting for president or Congress [4]. Why 20,000 matters: That's less than 0.1% of California's 23.2 million registered voters