There is a particular tension that gathers around the machinery of elections in the weeks before a vote, a tension that is not new but that has become sharper in recent years, as claims of fraud and counterclaims of intimidation have turned the administration of democracy into a battleground. In California, that tension arrived this week in the form of handcuffs and federal charges. Twenty-eight people, all lawful permanent residents, were charged with election-related offenses as part of an operation the Justice Department has named "Operation Protect the Vote." Eleven were arrested on Monday .
Among them were three residents of the Sacramento region and the Bay Area. Giezell Viduya Adawag, forty-one, of Vacaville, is accused of registering to vote and casting a ballot in the November 2024 general election while falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen. She made her first appearance in federal court on Monday and was released on her own recognizance . Juan Antonio Rivas Garcia, forty-six, and Kamlesh Navnitlal Shah, sixty-seven, both of Sacramento, face similar accusations: falsely claiming citizenship when registering and casting ballots in elections for which they were not eligible .
The broader numbers are significant. All twenty-eight defendants are green card holders, legally permitted to live and work in the United States but not permitted to vote in federal elections . Twenty-one of them are accused of actually casting ballots, according to the Justice Department. The charges include fraudulent voter registration and making false statements in naturalization applications, offenses that carry maximum sentences of up to five years in prison . The operation was coordinated across all four U.S. Attorney's Offices in California, and officials said it represents an escalation of a broader effort that has produced 113 charges in twenty states over the past seven weeks .
The timing is not incidental. The arrests came just days after the Justice Department sued California over its mail-in voting system, claiming that more than 20,000 "likely aliens" appear on the state's voter rolls. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said each of the twenty-eight charged appeared on that list, which was provided to state election officials last week . The department has asked a court to set aside any ballots cast by those individuals until their citizenship can be verified .
California officials have responded with skepticism. Secretary of State Shirley Weber has questioned the reliability of the federal data and warned against removing voters without adequate verification . Attorney General Rob Bonta described the arrests as a drop in the bucket compared to the 23 million people registered to vote in the state, and he defended California's election safeguards . The dispute has become a federal-state confrontation over election oversight, with the midterms now less than two weeks away.
There is a human dimension to the charges that the legal language does not capture. Adawag's attorney, Megan McLoughlin, said the case was unusual in her experience. "This is the first time I've ever seen this type of charge," she said. "It's really traumatizing and scary to be arrested when the marshals come to your door for any reason" . If convicted, Adawag faces a maximum of one year in federal prison. The others face potentially longer sentences, depending on the charges.
For now, the cases will proceed through the federal courts, and the broader legal battle over California's voter rolls will continue in a separate courtroom. What the prosecutions will ultimately demonstrate—whether they represent a serious effort to protect election integrity or a political exercise designed to sow doubt—is a question that will be argued by lawyers and decided by judges. What is clear is that twenty-eight people are now facing the consequences of votes they should not have cast, and a state is defending a system it says is already secure.
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Sources: KION Central Coast, Courthouse News Service, Cebu Daily News, Outlook India, The New York Times
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