48-hour deadline for county registrars

Federal prosecutors sent letters to county registrars across California on Friday telling local officials to set aside and verify ballots the Department of Justice believes may belong to noncitizens. According to the LA county registrar's office, at least 18 counties across the state have received similar letters.

The counties have been given a 48-hour deadline to provide identifying information for ballots the federal government believes were sent to noncitizens. The Justice Department asked for details about the voters it suspects, including:

• •social security numbers
• •ID information
• •a copy of their registration

Legal jeopardy warning and San Bernardino list

First assistant US attorney Bill Essayli put the stakes for local officials directly.

The letter sent to San Bernardino County says the government's list of suspected noncitizen voters includes 1,133 people from the inland southern California county.

Part of a wider federal legal fight

The letters are the latest step in a lawsuit the federal government brought earlier this month against Los Angeles county and the California secretary of state's office, seeking to block the counting of votes cast by roughly 20,000 people it describes as likely noncitizen voters.

Earlier in the week, federal authorities filed criminal charges over illegal voter registration against 28 people drawn from that list of 20,000; some were also accused of casting ballots illegally and of lying on naturalization paperwork. Those charges could lead to years in prison. The move marks an escalation in the legal battle between California and Donald Trump's Department of Justice ahead of the midterm elections.

California's response and next court steps

California's secretary of state and the LA county registrar opposed the federal demands in legal filings, arguing the request threatens to delay the certification of the vote and undermine the legitimacy of the November midterms. The state notes that its more than 23 million registered voters received mail-in ballots earlier this month, and that over 330,000 of those ballots have already been counted.

The Trump administration has asked the ninth circuit court of appeals to rule on the lawsuit if the district judge assigned to the case does not, setting a Saturday deadline for that decision. A hearing on the case is scheduled for Tuesday.