DoJ non-citizen voter list includes 'high percentage' of people born in US, Los Angeles officials say
Los Angeles election officials said in court papers on Tuesday that the justice department's list of 20,000 suspected non-citizens in California includes a "high percentage" of people born in the United States.
DoJ non-citizen voter list includes 'high percentage' of people born in US, Los Angeles officials say
Los Angeles election officials said in court papers on Tuesday that the DoJ non-citizen voter list sent to California includes a "high percentage" of people born in the United States.
The list and the 48-hour demand
In the week before the filing, the justice department gave a list of 20,000 suspected non-citizens to election officials in Los Angeles county and the California secretary of state. It set a 48-hour deadline for them to segregate ballots cast by anyone on the list unless they could verify those people's citizenship.
California officials refused the demand, and the Department of Justice sued them on Thursday. According to the filing, only about 7,000 of the 20,000 names delivered to Los Angeles county had an address in the county.
What the sample showed
Los Angeles officials examined a sample of 200 people from the list. Aman Bhullar, an official in the Los Angeles clerk and recorder's office, wrote in a court declaration that among the records with meaningful birthplace information, 38.9% indicated US birth.
"Among the records for which birthplace information was meaningfully reported, 38.9% indicated that they were born in the United States."
It was not immediately clear how many people in the sample the 38.9% figure represented, and a county spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
Bhullar's declaration also stated that:
- 43% of those on the list had a voter registration record that had been cancelled
- seventy-one per cent of those in the sample never voted
- 86 people in the sample had been mailed a ballot this year
How the list was built
The list was compiled by the Department of Homeland Security, which has resisted state demands to share its methodology for matching voter rolls to non-citizen records. Experts have warned that the way DHS matches voter rolls to its own records could be error-prone.
They point to a Nevada example: in July, DHS accused the state of having as many as 16,000 non-citizens on its voter rolls, then sent a list of 185 people. Nevada officials investigated and said all 185 were in fact citizens.
What both sides say
R Trent McCotter, the acting deputy attorney general, acknowledged at a Monday press conference that citizens could appear on the list.
"There may be some names on there who, it turns out, ultimately are citizens. We're not perfect."
Kiersten Pels, a justice department spokesperson, argued that a US birthplace recorded on a voter registration form does not prove citizenship.
"Just because an alien says on a form that they are a citizen doesn't make them eligible to vote."
Pels said California cannot facilitate the violation of federal law, that the state was asked to independently verify the citizenship of ballots cast by people on the list and refused, adding: "Federal law doesn't permit this willful blindness."
The dispute is now before the courts, with the justice department pressing California to verify the citizenship of ballots cast by people on the list - a demand state officials have refused.
