FRAUD WATCH: California Won’t Vet 20,000 Ballots

President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is facing a major dispute over the accuracy of its California voter investigation after researchers reported that more than 40% of the individuals flagged as possible noncitizen voters could not be matched to the state’s official voter registration records.

The findings come as the administration continues its effort to investigate suspected unlawful voting ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.

Federal investigators identified 20,930 individuals whose immigration and voter registration records raised questions about their eligibility to participate in federal elections.

The Justice Department sought cooperation from California officials in examining those registrations and requested that ballots associated with unresolved cases be temporarily separated.

State election officials refused to implement the requested emergency procedure, leading to federal litigation over the government’s authority and the reliability of the information.

The latest development came in a court filing submitted by researchers associated with the UCLA Voting Rights Project.

The researchers compared the federal list with California’s statewide voter registration database.

Their analysis found that 8,880 names did not match anyone in the voter file.

That represented approximately 42% of the 20,930 records identified by federal authorities.

The findings raise questions about whether the government’s initial list accurately identified people currently registered to vote in California.

A mismatch in a database does not automatically demonstrate that an individual is ineligible or that a record is fraudulent.

Differences in spelling, personal information, citizenship records, and database updates can affect the results of automated comparisons.

The researchers also identified at least 22 confirmed United States citizens among the people flagged.

They reported that approximately 7,500 additional individuals were highly likely to be naturalized American citizens.

Naturalized citizens have the same federal voting rights as other American citizens when they meet the applicable eligibility requirements.

Those findings are important because older immigration records may not accurately reflect a person’s citizenship status after naturalization.

If agencies rely on outdated records, a legally eligible voter could be mistakenly identified as a noncitizen.

The Justice Department disputes the researchers’ analysis and continues to defend its election-related investigation.

Federal prosecutors maintain that credible indications of potentially unlawful voter registration warrant examination.

The administration’s original concerns were set out in an October 15 Justice Department announcement.

Attorney General Todd Blanche described the federal government’s position in announcing the lawsuit.

He stated, “State-facilitated voter fraud is unacceptable in the United States of America.”

The Justice Department argued that California should take steps to identify any individuals who were unlawfully registered and prevent ineligible ballots from being counted.

Federal law generally prohibits noncitizens from voting in elections for president and Congress.

The government has emphasized that accurate voter registration records are essential to enforcing those eligibility requirements.

California operates a statewide vote-by-mail system under which registered voters automatically receive ballots.

That process makes voter registration records especially important to election administration.

The Justice Department requested that California officials examine the individuals identified on the federal list and temporarily separate potentially affected ballots until citizenship questions could be resolved.

The request would have required election officials to identify ballots associated with flagged registrations before those ballots were mixed with other votes.

California declined to adopt that process.