WASHINGTON — More than 4 in 10 names flagged as possible noncitizen voters in California by the Trump administration cannot even be found on the state’s voter rolls, according to a legal filing Saturday by an immigrant rights group. It’s the first outside analysis of a list that the Department of Justice has used to threaten prosecution of election officials.
The analysis also found that thousands of U.S. citizens appear to be flagged as ineligible to vote on the government’s list.
The contention was made in a filing by two UCLA data scientists who analyzed the 20,930 names that the department demanded that California election officials treat as possible illegal voters by separating their ballots during the vote count on Election Day. Multiple judges have rejected the demand as unconstitutional and a threat to democracy, and local and state officials have said the list appears riddled with errors.
The breadth of its problems was outlined in Saturday’s filing. It describes an analysis by two members of the UCLA’s Voting Rights Project, who filed a lawsuit challenging it with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. The research found that 8,880 of the names, representing 42% of the entire list, do not correspond to anyone on California’s current voter file. It also found at least 22 are U.S. citizens and many more may correspond to those of confirmed citizens.
“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,” said the filing, which was co-signed by Xavier Becerra, the Democratic candidate for California governor and an adviser to the UCLA Voting Rights Project.
The Trump administration had objected to sharing the list, calling it a “fishing expedition” and noting it included sensitive information.
