California Faces Federal Pressure Over Voter Eligibility Dispute
As California’s state primary approaches, a contentious issue has arisen between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and California officials. The DOJ has called on the state to isolate ballots from approximately 20,000 individuals it suspects are “likely” noncitizens. However, local authorities argue the list’s reliability is questionable, with some entries indicating U.S. birth.
According to recent court documents filed by California and local officials, the state’s stance is that complying with the DOJ’s request would be impractical and potentially violate election laws, just days before the election. The federal lawsuit seeks to force an investigation into these voters prior to ballot counting.
California’s response in the court filing was blunt: “At best, this litigation is a reckless political stunt. At worst, it threatens to disenfranchise thousands of Californians this election.” (source).
The situation escalated after the DOJ provided Los Angeles County with a thumb drive listing the individuals, which was initially refused due to security concerns. Subsequently, the DOJ emailed the list, which included around 7,035 entries with Los Angeles addresses, some of which were duplicates.
Los Angeles County officials sampled 200 individuals from the list to assess its accuracy. “The review is preliminary and quality control is continuing, but it indicates that the October List is unreliable,” stated Monica Flores, Assistant Registrar-Recorder. Of these, 38.9% reported being born in the U.S., suggesting citizenship.
It’s unclear how many individuals this percentage represents, and efforts to clarify the records’ details have not yielded a response from the LA county clerk’s office.
Federal findings assert noncitizen voter registration, but the Trump administration’s methods remain unclarified. Previous federal data on noncitizen voting has been shown to be inaccurate (source).
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter acknowledged potential errors in their list during a press conference. “There may be some names on there who it turns out ultimately are citizens, we’re not perfect,” he stated. “And that’s why we’ve asked California to cooperate with us.”
The DOJ also announced charges against 28 individuals from the list, all legal permanent residents, highlighting the confusion among green-card holders regarding voting eligibility. One such individual, Kamlesh Shah, expressed distress after being charged, believing his Real ID permitted voting (source).
Research indicates that noncitizen voting cases often involve misunderstandings rather than deliberate fraud, particularly among green-card holders (source).
