UCLA Finds 42% of DOJ Voter List Missing From California Rolls

A UCLA Voting Rights Project analysis filed in federal court Saturday found that 8,880 of 20,930 names on the Justice Department’s list of alleged noncitizen voters in California—42 percent—do not appear in the state’s current voter rolls. CHIRLA and UCLA researchers, in a filing cosigned by Xavier Becerra, also identified at least 22 people on the list who appear to be U.S. citizens and said nearly 7,500 naturalized citizens were “highly likely” to be incorrectly flagged. A federal judge ordered the DOJ to share the list with plaintiffs, enabling the review. The list was provided to California in early October; the lawsuit was filed Oct. 15. The Ninth Circuit on Friday rejected the administration’s emergency request to separate the listed ballots, for the second time; a federal district judge had previously rejected the demand. The filing states the mandated list “endangers a significant number of eligible California voter.” DOJ spokesperson Kiersten V. Pels wrote, “Every ballot cast by an ineligible voter cancels out the vote of an American citizen,” and “The Department makes no apology for protecting those votes.” President Trump posted that the department found “20,000, but potentially Hundreds of Thousands, and maybe even Millions” and asked, “Why would they reject fixing Election Fraud?” The administration had objected to sharing the list as a “fishing expedition.” A federal judge separately ordered the DOJ to stop sending demands to state officials; the administration appealed Saturday.