Voter Roll Discrepancy: Analysis of DOJ List
UCLA researchers found 42% of names in the government's suspect list do not match current California voters, a finding federal prosecutors called bogus.
By Joao Menon ·
Two researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, determined that 8,880 names on a Department of Justice list do not appear in the state's current voter file. This figure represents 42% of the 20,930 individuals flagged by the federal government as possible noncitizen voters. The findings were detailed in a court filing submitted on Saturday by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA.
The analysis is the first independent review of the list the Justice Department used to threaten election officials with prosecution. The department demanded that California officials separate the ballots of these individuals during the count on Election Day. The UCLA team also identified at least 22 names belonging to confirmed U.S. citizens and estimated that nearly 7,500 naturalized citizens were likely flagged in error.
Xavier Becerra, the Democratic candidate for California governor and an adviser to the UCLA Voting Rights Project, cosigned the filing. He stated that the mandated list endangers a large number of eligible voters. The researchers noted that the administration removed voter identification numbers from the list. This omission makes it difficult for local officials to verify if a flagged person is already on the rolls or is a duplicate entry.
Bill Essayli, the federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, rejected the findings on social media. He called the report a bogus product of an activist group. The Justice Department argued that failing to separate ballots from suspected noncitizens would invalidate votes from citizens. Spokesperson Kiersten V. Pels wrote that the department makes no apology for protecting those votes.
President Donald Trump criticized the legal rulings against his administration's efforts on social media. He claimed the Justice Department found 20,000 potentially fraudulent votes, a number that could reach millions. He questioned why courts would reject the effort to fix election fraud. A federal judge in California ordered the department to share the list with plaintiffs on Friday, enabling the UCLA analysis.
The Trump administration also urged Washington state to remove 400 possible noncitizens from its rolls. State election officials in Washington disputed the list's reliability, noting it included one voter who cast ballots in the 1990s. The Justice Department has warned California officials of potential criminal liability if they allow noncitizens to vote and has issued subpoenas to local election offices.
A federal judge in California ordered the Justice Department to stop sending demands to state officials on Friday. The Trump administration appealed that decision on Saturday. Multiple judges have already rejected the department's demand as unconstitutional. Local and state officials have complained they lacked the time to conduct the legally required investigations before Election Day.
Source: KNBC
