The Justice Department on Sunday defended the accuracy of its list of what it says are more than 20,000 suspected noncitizens registered to vote in California and asked a federal judge to consider whether an immigrant rights group and its lawyers should face contempt charges after they published an analysis of the names.1,4
The request, directed to U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., came one day after attorneys for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, filed court papers saying their review found that more than 40 percent of the people on the list do not appear in the state's voter file. The dispute centers on a list the administration wants California to use to set aside ballots days before Tuesday's midterm elections, when millions of Californians have already cast ballots.1,4,5,2
The size of the list itself was described differently in the filings and reports. The Justice Department and court papers described it as 20,000 people, while researchers with the Voting Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, said they examined 20,930 names identified by federal officials. The researchers found that 8,880 names, or 42 percent, could not be matched to California's current voter file. The analysis also identified 22 people on the list who were likely naturalized U.S. citizens and said thousands more U.S. citizens appeared to be on it as well.1,4,5,6,3
Boasberg on Friday had allowed CHIRLA access to the federal data for 20,000 people the Trump administration alleges are noncitizen voters in California. He ordered the plaintiffs not to disclose any names on the list and to use the data only for arguments about why they have legal standing to challenge the administration's use of it. The Justice Department said in its Sunday filing that the analysis had nothing to do with standing and therefore violated that order. "The report's political grandstanding about alleged inaccuracies that purportedly impact California voters generally, or comparisons between the government's list and the full 'California voter file,' has no relevance to whether the particular plaintiffs in this case have standing," it said.1,4
The department also suggested that Boasberg refer the matter to the Justice Department for investigation for possible criminal contempt of court. Alberto Lammers, a spokesman for the University of California, Los Angeles' Voting Rights Project, which filed the case and did the data analysis for the immigrant rights group, said in an emailed statement: "Plaintiffs' counsel and their experts fully complied with the Court's orders."1,4
The administration has said its list was carefully compiled from the state's own voter registration data and compared to federal citizenship records. The Justice Department issued a series of subpoenas to election offices in California and warned election officials who knowingly let noncitizens vote that they could face criminal charges. Federal prosecutors have also warned officials of potential criminal consequences for knowingly processing ballots cast by noncitizens.1,4,5
California election officials contend the list is riddled with errors and say they have no way to do the work required by law to remove voters from the rolls in the days before the election. People attest to being U.S. citizens when they register to vote and risk felony prosecution if they cast a ballot when they are not eligible.1,4
In a separate case, the Justice Department on Sunday also appealed a decision from Friday night by U.S. District Court Judge Trina L. Thompson. The San Francisco-based judge barred the department from demanding that election offices remove possible noncitizens from voter rolls, separate their ballots or threaten legal action. The department noted that Thompson ruled before the federal government was able to file its initial arguments, and Thompson scheduled a Monday hearing on the appeal.1,4
That case is one of many the Trump administration has lost in its battle over its lists of alleged noncitizen voters. A federal judge in California rejected its demand that election officials be forced to separate ballots cast by those voters, writing that such last-minute orders could "wreak havoc" on the state's election, and two appellate judges agreed. On Friday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected the administration's emergency request to force California to set aside the disputed ballots a second time. "We decline the United States's invitation to contravene the Elections Clause by undermining the Constitution's plain text," the court majority wrote.1,4,6,5
The administration's list was delivered to California in early October and formed the basis of a lawsuit filed on October 15 that calls on California to sequester any ballots sent to those "likely non-citizens," preventing them from being tallied. The Justice Department demanded that California officials separate ballots associated with the listed individuals and withhold them from counting until citizenship can be verified. California officials rejected the demands, questioning the list's reliability and warning that separating ballots could disrupt an election already underway, and a federal district judge had previously rejected the request, warning it could disenfranchise eligible voters and create chaos.6,5
The UCLA scientists said many other names on the list were either confirmed as U.S. citizens or may correspond to U.S. citizens, and warned the number of citizens included could be considerably higher. "This review proves, at least as a preponderance of the evidence, that demands of election officials under criminal and civil threats, endangers the voting rights of plaintiff CHIRLA's members and clients," the filing said. It was co-signed by Xavier Becerra, the Democratic candidate to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom. Similar lists sent to other states have also found significant errors, and Nevada found that none of the names included on its list were noncitizen voters. All 50 states prohibit noncitizen voting in federal elections.6,5
Thompson is scheduled to hold a hearing Monday on the department's appeal, with the midterm elections that will decide control of Congress and 52 House seats in California set for Tuesday.1,4,5,6
