The U.S. Justice Department charged 28 green-card holders in California with alleged voting and registration offenses Monday, widening its confrontation with state officials as early voting gets underway for the fall midterms. The department also asked a federal judge to prevent California and Los Angeles County from counting ballots cast by people on a list of 20,000 voters federal officials describe as “likely noncitizens.” California has not been given the information it says is needed to verify the federal government’s conclusions. All 28 people charged appeared on the federal list, according to Justice Department officials. Some are accused of registering to vote more than 20 years ago, and some do not appear to have cast ballots. Several are also accused of making false statements on naturalization applications about whether they had registered or claimed U.S. citizenship. The charges are allegations, not findings of guilt. “This Department of Justice will not look the other way while noncitizens vote in federal elections,” Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said at a news conference. Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for California’s Central District, rejected the possibility that the cases stemmed from administrative mistakes, saying those charged had either attested to citizenship while seeking a driver’s license or submitted voter-registration forms under oath. The latest charges are part of a nationwide push: Justice Department officials said they have charged 113 noncitizens in 20 states with voting or registration crimes over the past seven weeks. Noncitizen voting has not been found to be widespread in U.S. elections, and election experts say past cases have sometimes resulted from bureaucratic errors. The dispute over the 20,000-name list has moved quickly. Last week, federal officials sent it to Los Angeles County with a 48-hour deadline to investigate. State and county officials declined, and the federal government sued. McCotter later warned California officials they could face criminal prosecution for knowingly processing ballots cast by people federal agencies had identified as noncitizens. President Donald Trump also threatened jail for officials in a social-media post. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber has argued the federal demand conflicts with state and federal law. In a letter to McCotter, Weber said withholding or setting aside ballots would amount to an unprecedented denial of voting rights. Los Angeles County’s counsel similarly said the county was not authorized to take the requested action and warned it could disenfranchise people without due process. Their letters cite the National Voter Registration Act, which bars systematic removal of voters from state rolls during the 90 days before an election. The restriction is intended to prevent eligible voters from being wrongly removed shortly before they cast a ballot. Federal officials say the 20,000 names represent cases they consider especially likely to involve noncitizens, based on comparisons of government databases and other records. They have also blamed California for not turning over its full voter roll, including partial Social Security and driver’s license numbers. The department says those records could help determine citizenship status; federal judges have dismissed similar Justice Department demands for voter data in 26 cases, according to the report. Election-law expert Rick Hasen of UCLA said the number of allegations is small compared with California’s more than 20 million registered voters and warned that the effort could undermine confidence in elections or put eligible voters at risk of losing their ballots. California officials say the federal government has not established that everyone on its list is ineligible. The Justice Department argues that counting unlawful ballots could dilute lawful votes and that any harm might be impossible to undo once ballots are mixed. Voting and civil-rights groups have sought to join the case to challenge the department’s demands. The judge’s decision could shape how officials handle the flagged ballots while voting is already in progress.