The administration of US President Donald Trump has reportedly initiated legal action against the state of California. The lawsuit follows the state's alleged failure to meet a strict deadline to review a controversial list of registered noncitizen voters provided by federal officials.

Filed in a US District Court in California, the Department of Justice (DOJ) action asks the court to block the state from counting mail-in ballots from individuals included on a shared list purportedly containing 20,000 noncitizens. The agency claims it attempted collaborative efforts, though state authorities allegedly made no serious attempts to verify the data.

This aggressive legal maneuver comes on the heels of a 48-hour ultimatum issued by the DOJ to several county offices in California. The letters threatened further unspecified actions if local authorities failed to review the lists of allegedly ineligible voters provided by the federal apparatus.

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber strongly pushed back against the federal demands, stating that the US regime is pushing unprecedented measures that jeopardize the voting rights of thousands based on unverifiable information and opaque methodologies. Weber pointed out that the emergency was supposedly manufactured by the DOJ itself.

California Governor Gavin Newsom sharply rebuked the federal lawsuit, condemning it as a desperate attempt to suppress voters just weeks before Election Day. Newsom asserted that federal entities have no legitimate role in running state-level elections and vowed to defend the democratic process against authoritarian pressure.

Source: www.aljazeera.com