California Governor Gavin Newsom has warned the state’s most senior federal judges to be prepared for possible attempts by federal agents to seize ballots, election records or voting equipment before the midterm results are certified.
In a letter sent on Saturday, Newsom wrote to the chief district judges for California’s four federal district courts, urging them to scrutinise any application for a search warrant seeking election materials while voting is under way and before certification. He said he had “grave concerns” that federal agents would seek such warrants before California’s results are certified on 11 December 2026.
The governor argued that seizing ballots or the equipment needed to process and tabulate them would serve no legitimate law-enforcement purpose. California’s strict chain-of-custody, documentation and retention rules, he said, already preserve any evidence tied to ballots and ballot materials under court supervision. The only reason to take them mid-count, he wrote, would be to interfere with the state’s “lawful counting of ballots and certifying the results of the election”.
Newsom was careful to draw a line between a warning and an accusation about a pending case. He wrote that he was not writing in connection with any warrant application currently before those courts, and that he was unaware of any such applications at the time. His letter is therefore a warning about a risk he sees developing, not a report that federal agents have already sought to seize ballots.
To help judges assess any future application, Newsom enclosed a guide from the UC Berkeley Edley Center on Law and Democracy, “Questions for Assessing A Search Warrant for Election Materials”, published in September 2026. The guide is intended for magistrate and district judges who may be asked to consider warrant requests between now and certification.
The letter points to a series of recent federal actions that, in Newsom’s view, justify the warning. It cites letters from Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter to state and local election officials warning of potential legal jeopardy if they did not comply with federal demands, social-media posts by Bilal Essayli threatening criminal prosecution of election workers, and federal grand jury subpoenas issued to Los Angeles County election staff.
The dispute sits within a wider legal fight over the administration’s demands for California voter records as part of a criminal investigation into alleged noncitizen voting. The Trump administration has alleged that more than 20,000 noncitizens are registered to vote in California, a claim the state and many experts have questioned, and the Justice Department has not said how many people on its list have actually cast ballots. California has said the administration’s assertions relied on “suspect data” and that complying would risk disenfranchising eligible voters.
Two court developments on Friday sharpened the confrontation. A US appeals court rejected the administration’s bid in the records fight, potentially setting up a showdown at the US Supreme Court, and a separate federal judge ordered the Justice Department to stop threatening to prosecute state and local election officials in California who refuse to comply with its election-related demands.
Under the US Constitution, the administration of elections is principally a state responsibility, and California officials argue that federal intervention in the counting process would cross that line. With all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 Senate seats on the ballot on Tuesday, the way votes are counted and certified in the country’s most populous state carries national significance, and any attempt to seize ballots mid-count would almost certainly trigger an immediate legal battle.
Sources: Reuters, “California governor asks US judges to resist Trump attempts to seize ballots”, 1 November 2026, https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/california-governor-asks-us-judges-resist-trump-attempts-seize-ballots-2026-11-01/ ; Office of the Governor of California, “Governor Newsom sends letter to top federal judges in California warning of potential election interference by Trump administration”, 31 October 2026, https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/10/31/governor-newsom-sends-letter-to-top-federal-judges-in-california-warning-of-potential-election-interference-by-trump-administration/
