Los Angeles County Refuses to Open DOJ USB Drive Containing Voter Data

Los Angeles County election officials are leaving an unsolicited Department of Justice USB drive untouched, citing strict information security policies and a lack of verification regarding the device's contents. The DOJ recently mailed the thumb drive to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and the Los Angeles County registrar’s office, asserting it contains names of potential noncitizens who received mail-in ballots for the upcoming midterm elections.

Federal authorities have demanded that state and local election officials verify the citizenship status of every person listed on the drive. The DOJ directive insists that officials either isolate the ballots tied to individuals whose citizenship cannot be confirmed or withhold them entirely if they have not yet been mailed. A federal lawsuit has been threatened if these steps are not implemented within a tight 48-hour window.

Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder and County Clerk, publicly confirmed that local staff have purposefully avoided accessing the storage medium. Logan explained that plugging in an unknown device would violate established data privacy protocols and that the hardware cannot be treated as a secure transmission channel. Furthermore, local authorities noted that the accompanying letter failed to detail the exact number of individuals involved or the precise nature of the records.

The standoff highlights mounting tensions between federal mandates and local election administration. Voting experts and local officials continue to raise alarms over unverified data matching methods, while legal challenges mount across multiple jurisdictions regarding administration efforts to alter voter rolls close to federal elections.