What A Day - Fed Election Threats Don't Scare State AGs

Episode Date: October 22, 2026

A federal judge in California today ordered the Trump administration to halt investigations in nine states into whether noncitizens are registered to vote. The ruling comes as the administration steps up efforts to identify noncitizen voters nationwide in the months leading up to the midterm elections. On today's show, Jane speaks with California Attorney General Rob Bonta about protecting voters' rights and how the state is preparing for Election Day on November 3.Show Notes: Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail]

The data is trash. It is unreliable. It is error prone. And the entity, the federal government that is engaged in this action, has a long history of advancing debunked conspiracy theories. And so I do think that they are trying to so distrust and socialize what they will do next to try to justify their interference in the election. It's Thursday, October 22nd. I'm Jane Koston, and this is what a day. President Donald Trump is cursing, I mean, gracing the state of Iowa with his presence today, but his administration is hard at work doing something. U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced charges today against a Virginia Democratic politician, a politician who helped spearhead the state's redistricting efforts last year. This morning, seven individuals were arrested or surrendered for allegedly participating in a large-scale, re-co drug trafficking and money-laundering conspiracy.

One of those individuals is the president pro tempore of the Virginia State Senate, Lily Louise Lucas of Portsmouth, Virginia. Virginia State Senator Lily Louise Lucas was charged today in connection with what federal authorities alleged was her role in leading a wide-ranging criminal enterprise. According to an indictment, Lucas is being accused of acquiring and distributing large quantities of marijuana and laundering the proceeds. six other defendants, including several of her relatives, were also charged. The charges, including drug trafficking and money laundering, came after the FBI searched Lucas's hometown office and a cannabis shop in which she has a stake back in May. Lucas, who has been an elected office for decades and is one of the state's most powerful Democrats,

is a vocal critic of President Donald Trump's administration. Why does this sound so familiar? The Trump administration has deported a lot of people over the last year, not as many as they planned. So they only ruined some lives. According to a report by the Migration Policy Institute, the Trump administration is on track to deport about 660,000 people. The report shows deportations increased from 620,000 people during the first year of Trump's second administration, but the numbers fall short of highs under previous administrations. The report, however, is based on publicly available data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests. The numbers could be,

higher since the administration stopped publicly releasing similar figures compiled by the Department of Homeland Security in January of 2025. Trump received billions from Congress and promised that the money would allow for one million deportations annually. Sad. The kids are not all right. Or fed. About 600,000 fewer children received free school lunches during the 26 fiscal year compared to the year prior. This is the result of Republicans' massive cuts to SNAP programs. According to the Washington Post, which found that more than 5 million people, including an estimated 2 million children, have lost SNAP benefits since last year. That means that fewer schools qualify for federal reimbursement of free school meals. Of course. But I want to talk about the great state of California

and how Trump is targeting its voters, like me. Joining me is California Attorney General Rob Banta. Attorney General Banta, welcome back to Wadda. Thanks for having me, Jane. Good to see you. So let's start with the most recent news, impacting California voters. On October 19th, the Justice Department said it charged 28 California residents with federal voting crimes. The DOJ says that this can improve their figure that there are 20,000 non-citizen voters in the state of California. You called the number of people charged

a, quote, drop in the bucket of 23 million registered voters. What's going on here? And what is the federal government trying to do? Well, I think the federal government is trying to sow seeds of distrust in the middle of an election in the biggest blue state in the nation because they are staring down a big blue wave and getting thrashed in the prospect of getting thrashed in the midterms. And they are planning for what's next. This is their contingency plan. They're going to start after the election, after they lose, start blaming so-called fraud. That's what they did in 2021.

It's the same playbook. They're socializing that idea now. Maybe they'll even try to improperly try to interfere with and block certification of final tallies because of these allegations. We'll have to see what they do next. And the coming days, where and how much. But it seems like a unprecedented escalation. and, you know, to the point, 28 individuals, and mind you, they're arrested, they haven't been convicted of anything, and some of them are saying, I never registered to vote, I never voted, I don't know why

you're arresting me, so we'll see what they can prove and what they can't, but that is a drop in the bucket of the 23 million voters. It's 0.001%. And it is completely consistent with what I've always said and completely undermines what they have said. They have said there is widespread voter fraud and that Democrats are involved in it. And what this shows is that fraud is exceedingly rare. It happens at times. And here, this is mostly Republicans among the 28 arrestees. So instead of widespread voter fraud being advanced by Democrats, it's exceedingly rare, isolated incidents of voter fraud perpetrated mostly by Republican. So I think, you know, they're reaching and grasping it for straws. But we have to

remember who they are and what they have done in the past. Remember, this is a president who asked the Secretary of State in early 2021 of Georgia to find, to find, mind you, 11,000 plus more votes that do not exist so he could win that state when he lost. He fueled the attack on the capital, trying to undermine the certification of the president of the United States, who won in that election, Joe Biden. He seized ballots in Fulton County, Georgia. He issued multiple executive orders that tried to undermine the fundamental right to vote, the right from which all the rights flow, including interfering with vote by mail, which we had to go to the U.S. Supreme Court to protect, including trying to create additional restrictions on what is required to provide to be

able to vote and preventing certain vote by mail ballots from being counted. And he continues to advance conspiracy theories. He continues to say he won the 2020 election when Joe Biden did, and he lost. He continues to use the state of the union. and primetime press conferences to advance these conspiracy theories. And so that is who is behind this most recent set of arrests here in California. And this isn't the first time this happened. In Nevada, the Department of Homeland Security approached Nevada officials and said, we have 16,000 people we've identified who are ineligible on your voter rolls.

And when push came to shove, they couldn't demonstrate that any were ineligible. They demonstrated that zero were ineligible. forget about 16,000 that they alleged. And so forgive us if we're skeptical here. And there was a sample of the data of these 20,000 purportedly ineligible voters that was done by the Los Angeles Registrar of voters. And it found that three out of four of them never voted in any election. They had no record of voting.

Over 50% of them do not have active voter registrations. They've either been canceled or they're inactive. And just under 50% were citizens, which means they are. They are very likely eligible voters because they're citizens, and that gives you the right to vote, of course, if you're the right age. So the data is trash. It is unreliable. It is error-prone.

And the entity, the federal government that is engaged in this action, has a long history of advancing debunked conspiracy theories. And so I do think that they are trying to so distrust and socialize what they will do next, to try to justify their interference. in the election. So I want to go back. You mentioned the Supreme Court ruling earlier this month. So the court, you know, you were part of a multi-state coalition that won before the court with regard to mail-in ballots. What does that mean for California voters? Right now it means it's business as usual. That vote by mail, the preferred way to vote by 89% of Californians, at least as of 2025,

is fully available to them. That all the ways and all the days that California, with its voting laws provides to Californians, eligible voters in California to vote, are fully available. You can, everyone gets a vote by mail ballot. It's universal vote by mail. They can put it back in a post box. They can, in a mailbox, they can put it in a ballot box.

They can bring it to a polling station. They can bring it to an elections office. They can vote on election day. They have a long window of almost 30 days during which they can vote. So the good thing is nothing has changed, and all of the ways and days to vote remain available. And that was touch and go until just a few weeks ago. When vote by mail, the president was trying to interfere with it, along with the United States Postal Service,

and we had to go all the way up to the highest court in the land to affirm what we always knew to be true, which is that states, not the executive branch of the federal government, determine the time, place, and manner of elections. and the president had to be stopped and blocked from interfering in our election here in California and throughout the country, at least with respect to vote by mail, by the U.S. Supreme Court, the highest court in the land. So it hasn't just been federal officials. We had the Riverside Sheriff who was ordered to return 650,000 ballots by the California State Supreme Court.

What went wrong there? And I think for many voters in California, they'd be wondering, what stops Riverside's sheriff or another? sheriff or another county in California from doing that again on November 3rd? Well, I'm glad you make that point because whether it's the president of the United States or a rogue lawless sheriff trying to interfere with the elections in California, we will stand strong for the fundamental right to vote to protect it, to make sure that it is not improperly interfered with and that our elections, that the integrity of the elections is protected, they remain accurate, reliable, safe, secure.

And what went wrong with the Riverside Sheriff seizing ballots is he acted lawlessly as a law enforcement officer, completely embarrassing and inappropriate. And he removed ballots from the custody and control of the local elections official, the local registrar voters in Riverside County. That was never to happen. The law prevents that removal of the ballots from the custody and control of the registrar voters. and he failed at the time to comply with my binding directions to him as his, as someone who, under the Constitution of the state of California, has supervisory authority over him. And we went to the California Supreme Court. They found unanimously in our favor that he improperly removed ballots from the custody control

of the local registrar voters and that he failed to comply with my binding instruction. So he was ordered to return the ballots. We inspected them and determined that. there was no interference with them. Their integrity remained intact. And going forward, the legislature and its wisdom with the governor here in the state of California have imposed additional liability on those who do what the Riverside County Sheriff, Sheriff Chad Bianco did, which is there will be criminal liability going forward if such conduct occurs.

So if Sheriff Bianco sees fit to engage. in a similar act going forward, he will be held criminally liable. We'll get back to my conversation with Attorney General Bonta in just a moment. What a day is brought to you by Bilt. Are you getting rewarded for paying your rent or mortgage right now? If the answer is no, you need to check out Bilt. Becoming a Bilt member means earning points on every housing payment, no matter where you live. Bilt points can be redeemed for flights, hotels, lift rides, Amazon.com purchases, future housing payments, and more. Personally, I'd use them for rent, a fitness class or gift cards. An unexpected benefit built gives every member access to is its

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Smileset.com slash Wad to get started. Smileset.com slash Wad. Let's get back to my conversation with Attorney General Bonda. How is your office preparing for DOJ election monitors, federal agents near polling places? I think that that's something a lot of people, understandably, across the state of California, a heavily Latino state, a state that has been targeted repeatedly by the Trump administration are very worried about. We're ready for all of it. If you can imagine it, we've thought about it, we're ready for it, we've prepared for it. We believe that we owe our constituents' readiness, preparedness, a plan, a plan of action

in case any of these actions by the federal government occur. So we've thought about National Guard, ICE, military, Marines, at or near polling stations, there is a federal law on the books that prevents them from being there. You cannot have military or people with weapons at or near polling stations. We're prepared to go to court to get a dispersal order immediately should any member of the federal government violate that law. We are prepared, and we've already dealt with a scenario of federal monitors coming to California potentially interfering with our safe, secure, accurate, reliable elections.

We sent observers to observe the monitors to make sure that they were not engaged in any improper interference with the elections and undermining of the integrity of the election. And we're prepared for the potential for ballot seizures. We have tabletoped and gamed out and scenario planned all these potential, all these possibilities. and we have a team ready to leap into action immediately, should any of these things occur. The right to vote is fundamental,

and we will do everything in our power to protect that fundamental, foundational, sacred right to vote here in California and beyond. So a couple of weeks ago on October 13th, you held a press conference offering voter advice, and something that struck me was how much of it was about how two-thirds of the mail-in ballots sent in that were rejected back in June were rejected because they arrived late or they were postmarked after election day. For people who are listening, who are California voters who have not yet mailed in their ballots, and I count myself among them, I've got a whole voting plan.

It involves sitting down and going through everything because there's a lot. So it's very long, Attorney General. It's a very long ballot. There's a lot to get through. There's a lot of information. We want you to be informed. I'm going to be. I'm going to have any shortage of information to inform your decision.

There's no shortage, no shortage of propositions I need to be looking up. But anyway, for people who are concerned about their ballot and ballot timing, especially with concerns about the Postal Service, what do they need to know? They need to know that you should cast your vote by mail ballot using the mailbox, using the U.S. postal system no less than one week before election day. So if you're a week or more before November 3rd, we recommend feel free to cast your ballot using the U.S. postal system, putting it back in the mail. But once you get within that week before election day, you should go to a local post office counter and get a postmark if you're going to use the postal service or perhaps even better yet,

just drop it in a ballot box or at a polling station or at a local. elections office to ensure it gets counted. Of those, I think it was 150 or 170,000 votes that weren't counted after in the last election. It was because they arrived after seven days after election day, which is the cutoff. If you cast your vote by mail ballot on or before election day, but it arrives less than seven days after election day, it's counted. But if it arrives eight days later, nine days later, 10 days later, it's not counted. And the Postal Service has been slow, noticeably so. And we want your vote-by-mail ballot to count. So we're recommending put it in the mailbox a week or more before the election if you're going to use the mailbox.

For those of you listening, that would be October 27th. You could get your Halloween costume and then mailing your ballot. So what are some, I think that we're in a moment where Donald Trump has effectively made people very anxious about mail-in voting and about voting in general. this midterms, past elections. What are some other common concerns you hear from people about their ballot? And how do you respond? Yeah, you know, as you mentioned, people are worried about the Postal Service. So that's why my response is we have the many ways in many days. You don't have to use the U.S. Postal Service if you don't feel comfortable with it. You can use a ballot box, a local elections office, a polling station. And if you don't feel comfortable putting your vote-by-mill ballot in a ballot box,

and you want to make sure it gets counted in some other way, you can go vote in person. So we provide a full menu of options for voters in California to do what makes them comfortable. If you're worried about the military being at the polling station on Election Day, polling stations at Election Day, then you can literally never leave your home. If you don't want to, you can receive your vote-by-mill ballot. and fill it out and you could have a friend or a loved one, put it back in the mailbox for you or drop it in a ballot box. You shouldn't have to feel that way.

That's wrong that the federal government might instill fear or intimidation or bullying in eligible voters. It should be made easy, not interfered with. But I say do what's most comfortable to you. Use your instincts. Use all the full menu of options available to you in California. California and exercise your right to vote in the way that feels best for you. But make sure you exercise your right to vote.

And people are chomping at the bit to make their voices heard right now. They want to declare what they will not accept and demand a better future and demand change. Trump is desperate right now because his polling is in the tank. And his unpopularity is at all-time highs. And he knows what's coming. and people want to express themselves. And so we're seeing immigration enforcement surges in California. We're seeing these highly publicized by design purported enforcement actions of what they are calling voter fraud.

And it's hard to not think that this is, you know, we can't be naive here, that this is an attempt to suppress the vote, to intimidate voters, to so distrust in voting and discourage people or intimidate people from voting, and that is wrong. So the antidote to that is be brave, be courageous, do one of the most patriotic things that there is to do in America as an eligible voter vote. Express your perspective about where we go from here and help write the next chapter in our state and in our country together. What's your voting plan? I usually vote on election day, and I fill out my vote-by-mail ballot at home. I usually wait until close to the election day to watch all the ads and review all the material. I don't think it changes where I am because I live in this space.

I have a very good sense of where I'm headed on what's on the ballot. But I just like that participatory process. It's communal. I like going to the polls with other voters. I like saying hi to the volunteers and the officials at the polling station. I like to see my neighbors there. I like to put my ballot in the box and just participate in that way. That's something that's special to me.

It's the way I've always done it. I'll probably go with my wife, who's a California state legislator, and we've done that together in the past. But it is important to have a plan. I'm glad you have a plan. I have my plan. I hope all the viewers have their plan, whatever it is, for how to cast their ballot.

Your vote is your voice. Sound off and make your voice heard. Attorney General Bonta, thank you so much for joining me. My pleasure. Thanks for having me, Jane. That was my conversation with California Attorney General, Rob Bonta.

Before we go, an election night will all be feeling a lot of feelings. Don't spend it alone, nervously hitting refresh. To celebrate, commiserate, or both, on election night, join us for Crooked Media Presents Live Election

Results, a live stream hosted by Alex Wagner and featuring a bunch of crooked hosts like John Favreau, John Lovett, Tommy Vitor, Stacey Abrams, Dan Fifer, Aaron Ryan, Kate Shaw, and more special guests to help make sense of the results. Expect hot takes, catharsis, and as many results as we can possibly analyze. So tune in to the Pod Save America YouTube channel on Tuesday, November 3rd, 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific for three hours of conversation, analysis, and maybe, hopefully, fun? Subscribe to the Potsave America YouTube channel now so you don't miss it. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review at Pete Higgseth ruins everything and tell your friends to listen. And if you are into reading, not just about how according to the Washington Post,

the Secretary of War Slash Little Boyd wanted a globe used by General Eisenhower during World War II for his office. And obviously, because it's Pete Higgsath, the precious artifact was broken during the move. Like me, Whataday is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Koston and side note. Instead of experienced normal people, Higgsass staffers move the globe because the history staffers were furloughed during the partial government shutdown. And then they broke the globe. Whataday is a production of Crooked Media. Our show is produced by Emily 4, Erica Morrison, and Adrian Hill.

Our team includes Haley Jones, Greg Walters, Metberg, Adam Lippberg, Johanna Case, and Desmond Taylor. Our music is by Kyle Murdoch and Jordan Cantor. We had helped today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.