Los Angeles Election Officials Highlight Limits on Verifying Voter Citizenship
Los Angeles election officials informed a federal court that they lack an independent method to confirm the citizenship of voters, as stated by Bill Essayli, First Assistant United States Attorney for the Central District of California.
During a recent court session, Essayli referenced a declaration from the assistant registrar-recorder of L.A. County. The declaration expressed concerns over a request from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to temporarily set aside ballots from over 20,000 individuals deemed as suspected noncitizens.
“The Registrar is not equipped or authorized to verify voter citizenship because it does not independently house citizenship-related information beyond the voter attestation as identified in federal and state law,” the declaration explained. “This includes things like immigration records and naturalization records, and they certainly cannot validate this information during an election period.”
It continued, “According to both California and federal law, for these voters, the Registrar relies on the sworn representation of citizenship and does not require further verification.”
In a social media post on Tuesday, Essayli criticized this claim, emphasizing that election officials acknowledged their inability to independently verify the citizenship status of registered voters.
“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.) Under federal law, only citizens may vote in federal elections,” Essayli wrote on X.
“Yet California has not acted on the list of 20,000 suspected noncitizens or agreed to set aside their ballots. American citizens’ votes are being diluted in California,” he added.
On Friday, U.S. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter sent a letter to L.A. Assistant County Counsel Peter M. Bollinger, reminding him of the dataset provided by the DOJ concerning the suspected noncitizens on California’s voter rolls.
Earlier in the week, the Justice Department revealed that 28 foreign nationals in California faced federal charges, including fraudulently registering to vote, with many alleged to have illegally cast ballots or obtained them fraudulently.
