More than 40 percent of the individuals flagged by the federal government as suspected noncitizen voters in California do not even appear on the state’s current voter rolls, according to a court filing submitted Saturday. The analysis, conducted by researchers with the UCLA Voting Rights Project, scrutinized a list of 20,930 people whom federal officials identified as potentially ineligible to vote.
Researchers discovered that 8,880 names—accounting for 42 percent of the total list—could not be matched to California’s active voter file. Furthermore, the analysis identified at least 22 individuals who appear to be United States citizens, with researchers cautioning that the actual number of citizens swept up in the list could be considerably higher.
The findings were submitted as part of an ongoing federal lawsuit brought by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. The organization is challenging the administration’s attempts to leverage federal immigration data to identify and flag suspected noncitizen voters ahead of upcoming midterm elections.
The underlying dispute centers on demands from federal prosecutors, who instructed California election officials to segregate ballots linked to the listed individuals and withhold them from being counted until their citizenship status can be verified. Prosecutors warned local authorities of potential criminal liabilities for knowingly processing ballots cast by noncitizens. In response, California election officials rebuffed the demands, questioning the accuracy and reliability of the data while cautioning that separating ballots would severely disrupt an active election.
Legal battles over the initiative have moved quickly through the courts. On Friday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the administration’s emergency bid to compel California to set aside the contested ballots, ruling that the government failed to establish that such an extraordinary intervention was legally warranted. A federal district judge had previously rejected a similar request, warning that the maneuver risked disenfranchising eligible voters and generating administrative chaos.
The Justice Department has defended its actions, asserting that the initiative aims to safeguard federal elections from illegal voting and arguing that processing ineligible ballots compromises legitimate votes. However, the UCLA analysis calls into question whether the government’s data reliably identifies registered voters, let alone determines their eligibility.
The legal showdown unfolds as millions of voters across California have already cast ballots ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections.
