A federal judge in Washington D.C. issued a surprise order on Friday. The court directed the Department of Justice to hand over a specific list of 20,930 names to an immigrant rights group. This group is known as CHIRLA. The list contains people the government says are likely noncitizens on California voter rolls. The Associated Press reported on Saturday that the headline claimed an analysis found over 40% of these names were not on voter rolls.
Per RedState, the AP story missed a key detail about who requested the data. The judge ordered the release so CHIRLA could check if their own members appeared on the list. This step was meant to help the group prove they had standing to sue. Subsequently, data scientists from the UCLA Voting Rights Project matched the government list against the “CHIRLA members and clients naturalized citizen list.”
The Fine Print on the List
The headline made it sound like a neutral study found the results. In reality, the data came from a group with a clear political agenda. The UCLA Voting Rights Project is an ally of CHIRLA and serves as their legal counsel. Their report states that using scientific database matching methodology, they are certain that there are at least 22 entries on the CHIRLA citizen list that fully match to the DHS ineligible list.
This means the analysis only looked for matches within the group’s own records. It did not check the full state voter roll or other databases. Reports note that the group might have lists of non-citizens but chose not to use them. The report does not prove that these 22 people actually cast illegal votes. It only shows their names matched two different lists.
Legal Battle Over Ballot Processing
Separate from this list release, the DOJ tried to stop California from counting ballots. The department wanted to hold ballots from people on the 20,000-person list until citizenship could be verified. Federal judges in California rejected this request. Judge David O. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and Carter both rejected the emergency motion.
Then on Friday night, a different judge in Oakland issued a new order. This judge directed the DOJ to not “threaten, intimidate or coerce state or local elections officials or workers” regarding the ballots. According to reports, “Knowingly processing noncitizen ballots is a federal crime.” They stated that advising people of criminal actions is not a threat.
Newsom Warns Federal Judges
California Governor Gavin Newsom responded to these court rulings with a letter. He sent it to four federal judges in the state on Saturday. The letter warned them about the risk to election integrity if they issue search warrants to seize ballots while an election is underway. Newsom enacted a bill package criminalizing the illegal seizure of ballots prior to result certification.
Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta have been active on social media. They are celebrating the court wins against the Department of Justice. They feel confident that the ballots cast by noncitizens will be counted. However, they do not expect consequences for the workers or the noncitizens who voted illegally after the count is done.
Reports note that Judge Carter told the DOJ their remedy is to indict individuals. The judge stated that individuals committing a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. 611 may be charged.
