NORFOLK, Va. — Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday left open the possibility that the Justice Department could seek to block states from certifying votes in the midterm elections, though Blanche insisted it wasn’t his intention to “improperly interfere with elections.”
NBC News reported this week that the Justice Department is weighing more election-related litigation against states, following a lawsuit against California to compel state officials to review 18,000 registered voters the Justice Department suspected could be noncitizens seeking to cast fraudulent ballots. California has an all-mail election and sends out ballots automatically.
Seven other states and Washington, D.C. do, too: Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington state. Mail voting has frequently been a target for President Donald Trump’s voter fraud claims, which have escalated ahead of the 2026 midterms, even as he uses the voting method to cast his ballot in Florida while he resides and works in Washington.
The legal threats come amid a broader campaign by the Trump administration to zero in on what voting experts say is a relatively rare phenomenon of voting by noncitizens.
The Justice Department’s role in U.S. elections is limited by law, chiefly allowing the department to safeguard civil rights and prosecute individuals who violate election law.
While private citizens and candidates can sue to challenge ballots or election results, there are no U.S. laws that say the Justice Department can challenge ballots or delay certification. U.S. elections are run by state and local officials, who are charged with certifying results.
On Thursday, Blanche was asked by reporters whether he could rule out any action by the Justice Department that could seek to delay the counting of ballots.
“It is not DOJ’s intention to, and it’s never our intention to, improperly interfere with elections or the state confirmation process or certification process,” he told reporters before he boarded a plane.
Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel traveled to Norfolk for a press conference Thursday announcing racketeering charges against an 82-year-old Virginia state senator.
Blanche said there could be some “doomsday” scenario where the Justice Department would seek to get involved in state and local election officials’ certification process.
“To say that there’s no circumstances that we would ever do that …. of course, I’m not going to say that,” he said. “But am I planning my days around the election to be somewhere to not certify? Of course not.”
