The justice department’s list of suspected non-citizens in California includes a “high percentage” of people born in the United States, Los Angeles election officials said on Tuesday.
asserted
officials → suspect → Tuesday
The statement, made in court papers, raises further questions about the reliability of a list of 20,000 people the justice department provided to election officials in Los Angeles last week.
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department → make → Angeles
The department sent the county and California secretary of state the list last week and gave them a 48-hour deadline to segregate ballots cast from anyone on the list unless they could verify their citizenship.
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they → send → citizenship
California election officials refused and the Department of Justice sued them on Thursday.
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Department → refuse → Thursday
Of the 20,000 names delivered to Los Angeles county, only about 7,000 people had an address in the county, according to the filing.
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people → deliver → filing
Los Angeles officials analyzed a sample of 200 people on the list.
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officials → analyze → list
“Among the records for which birthplace information was meaningfully reported, 38.9% indicated that they were born in the United States,” Aman Bhullar, an official in the Los Angeles clerk and recorder’s office, wrote in a court declaration.
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Bhullar → report → declaration
It is not immediately clear how many people that is and a county spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
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spokesperson → return → comment
Forty-three per cent of those on the list had a voter registration record that had been cancelled, Bhullar said in his declaration.
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Bhullar → have → declaration
Seventy-one per cent of those in the sample never voted, and 86 people had been mailed a ballot this year.
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people → vote → ballot
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has compiled the list of non-citizens on the rolls, has resisted state demands to share its methodology for matching voter rolls for non-citizen records.
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which → compile → records
Experts have warned that the way DHS is trying to match voter rolls to its own records could be error-prone.
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DHS → warn → records
Indeed, the DHS does not have a good track record so far.
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DHS → have → record
In July, it accused Nevada of having as many as 16,000 non-citizens on its voter rolls.
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it → accuse → rolls
DHS officials later sent Nevada election officials a list of 185 people it believed were non-citizens.
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it → send → people
Nevada officials responded by investigating the list and said all 185 were in fact citizens.
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185 → respond → fact
R Trent McCotter, the acting deputy attorney general, acknowledged during a press conference on Monday there could be citizens on the list.
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McCotter → act → list
“There may be some names on there who, it turns out, ultimately are citizens.
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it → turn → ?
We’re not perfect, and that’s why we’ve asked California to cooperate with us,” he said at a Monday press conference.
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he → ’re → conference
Kiersten Pels, a justice department spokesperson, said that just because someone listed a US birthplace on their voter registration form it didn’t mean they were a citizen.
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they → say → form
“Just because an alien says on a form that they are a citizen doesn’t make them eligible to vote,” she said.
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she → say → form
“California cannot facilitate the violation of federal law.
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California → facilitate → law
We notified California that noncitizens are likely registered to vote, and we asked the state to independently verify the citizenship of any ballots cast by people on a list that we provided.
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we → notify → that
It refused to do so.
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It → refuse → ?
Federal law doesn’t permit this willful blindness,” she added.
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she → permit → blindness
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