LACo Attorneys: No credible evidence of non-citizen voting

LOS ANGELES (KESQ) - There is no basis to support the Trump administration's 11th-hour assertion that 20,000 suspected non-citizens were illegally registered to vote in the upcoming election, attorneys for Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan contend in newly filed court papers.  

Any alleged evidence suggesting that tens of thousands of people in Los Angeles County are unlawfully registered to vote is entirely "unreliable," according to the county's 41-page opposition to the U.S.
Justice Department's request for a temporary restraining order blocking California election officials from counting any returned ballots for people it has identified as possibly not being citizens.

"Voting is already underway in Los Angeles County,'' according to the motion. "Ballots have been mailed, returned, and processed, and election officials are working toward fixed deadlines for counting and certification. Plaintiff United States of America, through the Department of Justice ... now asks this court to interrupt that work and enjoin the withholding of 20,000 registered California voters' ballots pending investigation based solely on an unreliable voter roll maintenance list."  

Before filing suit, the DOJ sent letters last week to Logan and California Secretary of State Shirley Weber demanding that they separate and refuse to count the ballots of 20,000 voters the federal government claims are ineligible. State and county officials say the federal government has provided no information on how it flagged the people on the list.   

Logan and the Secretary of State's Office refused to comply, triggering the DOJ's lawsuit naming Logan and Weber as defendants.   

According to Weber's office, federal officials claimed in July that California had 190,000 non-citizens on its voter rolls, but when her office asked for proof of their claims, "they refused and provided California with nothing."

The Trump administration has long asserted that large numbers of non- citizens were casting ballots in California and elsewhere, although officials have never provided any proof or documentation of such sweeping fraud.   

"Plaintiff demands that California sequester and refuse to tabulate ballots cast by duly registered voters outside of any statutory procedure and in the absence of any individualized evidence,'' according to the county's motion filed in Los Angeles federal court Monday. "Such an order would unquestionably have a devastating disenfranchising effect. Plaintiff does not set out a standard by which citizenship can be `verified' and concedes that it `is not practicable or feasible for the United States' to carry out that
confirmation process `before the 2026 election concludes.'''   

Monica Flores, an official in the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's office, wrote in an affidavit accompanying the motion that the county registrar "has no authority under state or federal law to withhold or set aside the ballot of a registered voter on the basis of a third party's assertion that the voter may not be a citizen, has no information beyond the voter's own attestation with which to determine citizenship, and has no lawful means of obtaining such information.

"In addition ... a substantial part of what the DOJ requests is no longer physically possible, and the remainder could not be carried out without placing the timely and accurate administration and certification of the General Election at risk.''

Trump loyalist Bill Essayli, the region's top federal prosecutor, seized on Flores' statement in a posting on X.   

"Massive concession: Los Angeles election officials just told a federal court they have no independent way to verify citizenship beyond what voters attest. (They simply take their word for it.),'' Essayli wrote. "Under federal law, only citizens may vote in federal elections. Yet California has not acted on the list of 20,000 suspected non-citizens or agreed to set aside their ballots. American citizens' votes are being diluted in California.''   

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller also seized on the issue, writing on X, "California admits they knowingly allow anyone in the world -- illegal, foreigner, trespasser -- to vote in federal elections."  

Gov. Gavin Newsom weighed in on the issue again Tuesday, repeating the assertion that federal authorities previously claimed without evidence there were 190,000 non-citizens registered to vote in the state, then reduced that claim to 20,000 in last week's letters, then announced charges Monday against a total of just 28 people. Newsom said federal prosecutors conceded during a Monday news conference that some of the people charge may have never voted in an election, and also admitted that some people on the latest list of 20,000 alleged illegal voters may turn out to be legitimate U.S. citizens.   

"Yes, non-citizen voter registration and voting does happen in isolated instances -- in California and the rest of the country alike,'' according to the governor's office. "But it is so rare that the Trump administration is parading around town about 0.0001% of California voters. If the feds were serious about this, they would have done this long ago -- not in the middle of people voting, which inherently and needlessly sows distrust and doubt in our democracy."  

The county's court papers also questioned the veracity of the federal government's claims about the illegality of the 20,000 people on its target list. According to the motion, about 7,000 people had addresses in LA County, and a random sample of 200 people on the list determined that nearly 40% "indicated that they were born in the United States.''  

The California Secretary of State's Office filed its opposition to the DOJ's demands Tuesday.  

"At best, this litigation is a reckless political stunt. At worst, it threatens to disenfranchise thousands of Californians this election,'' the office said in court papers.  

"Plaintiff's sole claim -- that a federal criminal prohibition on individual noncitizen voting preempts large swaths of California's election administration -- borders on the absurd. The relief plaintiff seeks is as
unlawful as it is untenable."  

Late Monday, U.S. District Judge John Holcomb, sitting in Santa Ana federal court, was assigned the case. An initial hearing has not been scheduled.