Election claims tracker: fraud allegations, federal actions and what the evidence shows (Nov. 2026 midterms)

Synthesis

A running record of claims about election fraud and the federal actions taken on them around the Nov. 3, 2026 midterms, each entry dated and paired with what officials, courts and independent reporting have shown. It starts with DOJ's October actions against California: a Oct. 16 letter warning officials of possible prosecution, a lawsuit over ballots from about 20,000 alleged noncitizens, and Oct. 19 charges against 28 green-card holders. DOJ and the White House say noncitizen voting is a real threat; California officials and election experts say confirmed cases are very rare and the federal lists have shrunk or failed on review.

California: DOJ warning, lawsuit and charges (Oct. 15-19, 2026)
On Oct. 15, 2026 DOJ sued California to block counting of mail ballots from people the federal government calls "likely" noncitizens, about 20,000 names, until their status is confirmed. The suit followed California's failure to meet a 48-hour deadline to review the list.
On Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter sent a letter to the Los Angeles County Counsel's office, copied to Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Registrar Dean Logan, warning that officials who knowingly tabulate such ballots "risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime." The letter says consequences for facilitating or ignoring such a crime "are significant."
UCLA law professor Rick Hasen told AP the letter threatens election officials with possible criminal prosecution and raises the stakes. The AP report cites no specific statute.
As of the reporting reviewed, DOJ has not shown that any of the roughly 20,000 people it flagged cast ballots, and no court has ordered ballots withheld.
On Oct. 19, 2026 federal prosecutors announced charges against 28 lawful permanent residents in California for illegally registering or voting: 22 are accused of voting in at least one election, including the June primary, and five of registering only. One is accused of a 2020 provisional ballot.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said prosecutors have charged about 113 noncitizens in 20 states over two months, and that state election officials could face charges if they knowingly process ballots from noncitizens after being notified.
CalMatters does not report whether any of the 28 defendants are on DOJ's 20,000-name list, or any comment from the defendants or their lawyers.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the charges show fraud is rare: "It's 0.0001% of all the registered voters." Gov. Gavin Newsom called the federal effort a "sad, desperate attempt" to suppress voters.

Wider federal actions (60 Minutes, Oct. 18, 2026)
CBS News reported that armed federal agents seized more than 600 boxes of 2020 election materials from a Fulton County, Georgia facility in January, with DNI Tulsi Gabbard present, and that the FBI later reassigned 260 analysts to a priority investigation of them; per CBS, nothing has come of it so far.
CBS reported that DOJ asked nearly every state for full voter rolls last year, that 30 states of both parties refused, and that DOJ sued all of them. The SAN report cites CBS for 26 voter-roll cases the administration has lost without a win.
Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson (R), who refused to turn over voter data, said DOJ told her in writing last month she is under investigation. She found 52 questionable voters among more than 2 million registered in Utah.
CBS reported that DHS Secretary Mullin said officials who knowingly allow noncitizens to vote could be prosecuted or imprisoned, and that Trump signed two election executive orders, one on proof of citizenship to register and one on mail ballots.
DOJ Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon told CBS DOJ is pursuing "thousands" of possible noncitizen voting cases, will have more than 1,000 monitors at the polls, and called concerns that Trump might challenge midterm results "paranoia."
CBS reported that the administration alleges, without evidence in CBS's account, that 278,000 noncitizens are registered, and that it noted noncitizen voting occurs but is very rare; it cited about 340 people voting after a New Jersey software glitch registered thousands of noncitizens, and more than 100 noncitizens charged by DOJ since Trump's second term began.

DOJ's emergency motion and the Oct. 9 court order (Oct. 16-19, 2026)
On Monday, Oct. 19, 2026 DOJ filed an emergency motion in federal court in Los Angeles asking for a temporary restraining order to immediately stop California officials from counting ballots of people it says are noncitizens, and to require California to verify citizenship for more than 20,000 registrants before counting mail ballots. No hearing had been scheduled and the judge was not named in the report.
DOJ's stated reasons: California "refused to act" on the list and is treating those ballots like citizens' ballots, and McCotter said "Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a lawful American citizen." First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli noted California has already mailed ballots to the flagged voters.
DOJ says the list was built from federal databases, but, per the report, officials refused to disclose their methods to state and local officials.
Weber's office said that after federal officials claimed in July that California had 190,000 noncitizens on its rolls, they "refused and provided California with nothing" when asked for proof. LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn called the arrests a possible voter-intimidation tactic.
Separately, Common Cause told a federal judge that DOJ's Oct. 13 letters and the California complaint "appear to implicate—and perhaps outright violate" a vacatur order issued Oct. 9 by U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in another case, and asked for a status conference. Voting groups SIREN and Mi Familia en Acción made similar arguments in a motion to intervene.
DOJ told the court, per Democracy Docket, that it did not use the SAVE database in its California review and relied on other federal datasets, and that it has appealed the Oct. 9 decision to the D.C. Circuit.

Pressure on voters during early voting (Oct. 21-24, 2026)
A CBS News investigation published Oct. 21 found armed, uniformed DHS agents knocking on doors in several states to ask residents about their immigration status and whether they had registered or voted; critics say this can intimidate lawful voters, and DHS says it is investigating noncitizen voting. See the separate GREED entry on the DHS door-knocking surge.
Florida election supervisors flagged Customs and Border Protection vehicles outside early-voting sites that week and contacted the FBI; the Leon County supervisor later accepted that the agents were there to vote early, calling it an isolated instance. See the separate GREED entry on early-voting pressure incidents.

Watch list: what is already scheduled or announced for Nov. 3 and after
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the Justice Department will deploy approximately 1,000 election monitors in the November election, describing it as something DOJ routinely does.
NPR reported on Oct. 14 that DOJ leaders say they will step up their usual polling-place presence and that DOJ staff will only watch, while Trump officials have said ICE could serve warrants at polling places and allies such as Steve Bannon have urged the president to send armed agents; civil rights groups plan to send thousands of their own observers.
TIME reported that DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin confirmed in September that agents could serve warrants at polling places, that Trump said in May he would do "anything necessary" to ensure "honest" elections, and that federal law prohibits stationing troops or armed personnel at polling places except to repel armed enemies of the United States.
At least two lawsuits, one by the city of Denver and voting-rights groups and one by unions and civil rights groups, seek to block the administration from deploying federal agents at voting locations, according to Governing.
On June 29, 2026 the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that states may count mailed ballots that arrive after Election Day if they were postmarked by it, leaving those state deadlines in place for the midterms; deadlines differ by state.

Risks flagged by advocacy groups (projections, not events)
Protect Democracy, an advocacy group, warns that law enforcement could try to seize ballots, machines or records while the count is still under way, most likely in the first few days after polls close; federal law gives the attorney general only narrow access to inspect or copy certain records after an election, not to take originals.
The same group warns that large numbers of ballots or registrations could be challenged at once using error-prone data close to Election Day, and that hoax threats like those that reached dozens of polling places in 2024 could recur. These are forecasts of what could happen, not reported events.

Perspectives

Official position — DOJ and the White House (as reported by CBS, AP, CalMatters)
DOJ's position is that only citizens may vote in federal elections, that noncitizens are registering and voting, and that it is bringing cases and pressing states to verify citizenship before counting ballots to protect citizens' votes. McCotter said the aim is \"preventing voter fraud that cancels out the votes of U.S. citizens.\" Dhillon calls fears of interference in midterm results \"paranoia.\" A White House spokesperson said noncitizens \"continue to register and vote in federal elections.\"

Critic — California officials (Weber, Bonta, Newsom) and election officials of both parties
California officials say the federal government has not explained how it identified the flagged people, that its earlier claims shrank on review (Nevada's nearly 16,000 became 185 names, all confirmed citizens), and that charges against 28 people show fraud is rare. Utah's Republican lieutenant governor and a bipartisan group of states also refused to hand over voter data. Weber said DOJ has provided no evidence the flagged individuals are noncitizens.

Editorial read — The Author (site author)
The Author expects a wave of fraud claims from Trump and Republicans before and after the Nov. 3 election, and holds that actual election fraud has typically been committed by Republicans. This is The Author's view, not a sourced finding: nothing in the entries above compares fraud cases by party, and a sourced count of prosecuted cases by party and type is listed as an open lead in the notes.

Research notes
Standing hub for election-fraud claims and election-related federal actions; add dated entries as they come. Open leads: (1) ruling on DOJ's Oct. 19 emergency motion in Los Angeles and the underlying suit; (2) whether any of the 28 charged on Oct. 19 appear on DOJ's 20,000-name list; (3) Fulton County ballot seizure and the FBI investigation; (4) DOJ's investigation of Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson; (5) outcome of the Oct. 9 Sooknanan vacatur order and DOJ's D.C. Circuit appeal, and whether the California case is found to conflict with it; (6) a sourced count of prosecuted election-fraud cases by party and type, to test the claim about who commits fraud; (7) an Instagram video of FBI agents in a warehouse could not be identified and is not used. The emergency-motion details rest on one wire-style report (City News Service via MyNewsLA) plus Democracy Docket; look for AP, NPR or court-docket confirmation.

Note
DOJ says thousands of noncitizens are on voter rolls and some have voted; states and election experts say proven cases are very rare and federal lists have not held up.

Sources
[1] AP via PBS NewsHour, "DOJ says California officials who process ballots from suspected noncitizens risk prosecution" (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/doj-says-california-officials-who-process-ballots-from-suspected-noncitizens-risk-prosecution) · 2026-10-16
[2] CBS News / 60 Minutes, "Federal actions around voting system expand weeks ahead of midterms" (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-election-investigations-faith-in-voting-60-minutes/) · 2026-10-18
[3] CalMatters, "Federal prosecutors accuse 28 green card holders of illegally registering or voting" (https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/10/california-federal-arrests-voter-fraud/) · 2026-10-19
[4] Straight Arrow News, "Trump DOJ wants California to block ballots. The state disputes its evidence" (https://san.com/cc/trump-doj-wants-california-to-block-ballots-the-state-disputes-its-evidence/) · 2026-10-16
[5] MyNewsLA (City News Service), "DOJ Asks LA Court to Stop State From Counting Suspected Ineligible Ballots" (https://mynewsla.com/government/2026/10/19/doj-asks-la-court-to-stop-state-from-counting-suspected-ineligible-ballots-2/) · 2026-10-19
[6] Democracy Docket, "DOJ's California lawsuit may violate court order against Trump's voter roll crusade, voting groups warn" (https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/dojs-california-lawsuit-may-violate-court-order-against-trumps-voter-roll-crusade-voting-groups-warn/) · 2026-10-16
[7] CBS News — Federal agents knock on doors to track down possible noncitizen voters ahead of midterms (https://cbsnews.com/news/federal-agents-seek-noncitizen-voters) · 2026-10-21
[8] WTVR — Border patrol agents spotted near Florida polling site were there to vote, investigation finds (https://www.wtvr.com/politics/midterm-elections/border-patrol-agents-spotted-near-florida-polling-site-were-there-to-vote-investigation-finds) · 2026-10-24
[9] Democracy Docket — Trump DOJ readies 1,000 election monitors for midterms (https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/trump-doj-readies-1000-election-monitors-for-midterm-elections/) · 2026-10
[10] NPR — Civil rights advocates plan to send thousands of observers to midterm polling places (https://www.npr.org/2026/10/14/nx-s1-5991802/election-polling-place-observers) · 2026-10-14
[11] TIME — Your Questions About Voting in the 2026 Midterm Elections, Answered (https://time.com/article/2026/09/30/your-questions-about-voting-in-the-2026-midterm-elections-answered/) · 2026-09-30
[12] Governing — Election Officials Prepare for Federal Intervention in the Midterms (https://www.governing.com/politics/election-officials-prepare-for-federal-intervention-in-the-midterms) · 2026-09
[13] WHYY / Associated Press — Supreme Court rules states can count late-arriving mailed ballots, rejecting Trump-led challenge (https://whyy.org/articles/supreme-court-rules-late-mail-ballots-elections/) · 2026-06-29
[14] Protect Democracy — Frequently asked questions about the 2026 midterm elections (https://protectdemocracy.org/work/frequently-asked-questions-about-the-2026-midterm-elections/) · 2026-10

Connections

Related — Democratic leaders sue Trump, DOJ and DHS over threats to election officials and pressure to purge voters (filed Oct. 20, 2026)
The suit challenges the DOJ California ballot action and DHS noncitizen lists tracked there.

Related — DHS agents knock on doors in nine states asking residents about citizenship and voting during early voting; critics sue, a court restricts the practice (Sept.-Oct. 2026)
Hub entry tracking fraud claims, federal actions and what the evidence shows for the Nov. 2026 midterms; the DHS door-knocking surge is one of those actions.

Related — DOJ demands California set aside ballots of alleged noncitizens, then sues (Oct. 13-15, 2026)
The Oct. 13-15 DOJ demand and lawsuit are the background to the Oct. 16 warning and Oct. 19 charges.

Related — Early-voting pressure incidents in October 2026: federal agents seen near polls in Florida, a megaphone confrontation in Las Vegas, and harassment reports in Lewiston, Maine
Hub entry for fraud claims, federal actions and voter-intimidation reports around the Nov. 2026 midterms.

Same context — Election denial and interference efforts before the Nov. 2026 midterms: pardons, the Tina Peters case, Georgia's federal-intervention letters and National Guard troops near a DC ballot box
Same midterm-election pressure campaign, covering pardons, the Tina Peters case and Georgia.

Related — Mail delays, USPS postmark changes, armed guards at postal plants and the DHS voter-records hunt: Hartmann's "election trap" claims checked (Oct. 2026)
Covers the related voter-records effort and mail-ballot disputes ahead of the midterms.