Judge Orders DOJ To Hand Over List Of Purported Noncitizen Voters

Judge James Boasberg ordered the Department of Justice to hand over its list of 20,000 purported noncitizens it claims are registered to vote in California to a nonprofit immigrant advocacy group by 5 p.m. Friday.

The order came in a case brought by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights challenging the Justice Department’s subpoenas of California election officials in a dubious investigation alleging that those officials are breaking the law by allowing noncitizens to vote.

Earlier in October, the Justice Department sent a list of 20,000 names it claims are noncitizens registered to vote in California and demanded election officials remove those names and sequester any mailed ballots from the list within 48 hours or face a lawsuit. State election officials refused to comply, arguing that the government’s attempts to identify noncitizens have been riddled with errors in the past and that the federal government has no power to force them to do anything. DOJ sued, and a judge forcefully sided with state election officials.

Since then, the DOJ has issued subpoenas to California election officials, claiming they would be in violation of federal law for allowing noncitizens to vote. State election officials have denied any wrongdoing and noted that no law requires them to do what the Justice Department demands.

Furthermore, reviews of the list of 20,000 names by California officials showed significant errors, including people who are citizens, people who never registered to vote, false identity matches and duplicate names.

In a hearing on Friday, Boasberg said it was not possible for him to halt an ongoing investigation, but he did order that the DOJ hand over its list of names to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights so that the group can help inform voters who are afraid they may be on the list and are now scared of casting a ballot in this year’s election.