The Trump administration is seeking to stop the counting of some votes in California through a federal lawsuit filed Thursday, arguing that more than 20,000 voters in the state may not be citizens.

The lawsuit, filed in California federal court, argues the state should set aside the ballots of more than 20,000 voters who the federal government suspects are noncitizens in next month’s midterm elections. The suit came days after federal officials demanded state election officials access a thumb drive that contained the purported noncitizens, and state officials refused.

“The Federal Government notified California months ago that numerous noncitizens may be registered to vote in California. Despite knowing that California must send vote-by-mail ballots to every registered voter, the State made no serious attempt to work with the Federal Government to determine whether noncitizens are registered to vote,” the complaint says.

According to the lawsuit, the state should segregate the ballots sent to California voters who the federal government says are noncitizens and not count them until those voters verify their citizenship. The lawsuit does not cite a statute for imposing an additional requirement for voters to verify their citizenship. It argues the state is inducing noncitizens to vote despite a federal law making that a crime. 

The Justice Department announced the lawsuit on Thursday, asserting that California has illegally allowed noncitizens on its voter rolls and let them receive ballots.

“State-facilitated voter fraud is unacceptable in the United States of America,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.

Thursday’s suit marks the first attempt by the Trump administration to directly stop the counting of votes after spending months attempting to assert greater control over federal elections, building on years of evidence-free claims by Trump that fraud cost him the election in 2020.

Starting last year, Trump sought to add a citizenship verification requirement to the federal voter registration form, a move which has been blocked by the courts. The Justice Department also filed dozens of lawsuits against states seeking sensitive voter information, and in every case so far the courts have ruled federal law does not give the administration the right to seek that information.

Then, in March, Trump issued an executive order seeking to substantially curtail mail voting and force states to use a federal list of voters. A key element of the executive order was blocked by the Supreme Court last month — the U.S. Postal Service rule that would have imposed ballot requirements on states.

However, the justices allowed the use of another element of the executive order, the creation of a nationwide citizenship database.

More recently, during an oversight hearing last month, FBI Director Kash Patel refused to rule out sending FBI agents to polling places on election day.

The DOJ has also announced charges against several dozen people accused of voting illegally in the last two weeks.

The lawsuit was filed the same day Sens. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., Alex Padilla, D-Calif., Mark Warner, D-Va., and Gary Peters, D-Mich., wrote to Patel and Blanche demanding information on the Trump administration’s efforts to interfere with the midterm elections.

“It is our constitutional duty to conduct oversight over these unprecedented abuses of power to improperly meddle with state and local election administration in the midterm elections that are already underway,” the letter said. “The American people deserve to know why federal resources are being diverted from mission critical work to ensure their safety and instead devoted to this costly and, should it further escalate, potentially criminal crusade.”