WASHINGTON – More than 4 in 10 names flagged by the Trump administration as potential noncitizen voters in California do not even appear on the state’s voter rolls, according to a legal analysis filed Saturday. The findings provide the first independent audit of a controversial list that the Department of Justice has utilized to pressure election officials with threats of prosecution.
The filing, submitted by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), reveals that the federal list is riddled with significant errors. Two data scientists from UCLA’s Voting Rights Project examined the 20,930 names that federal officials demanded California election authorities treat as potential illegal voters. The government had previously insisted that these individuals’ ballots be separated during the vote count on Election Day, a mandate that has been rebuffed by multiple judges as both unconstitutional and a threat to democratic integrity.
According to the researchers, 8,880 of the flagged names—representing approximately 42% of the total list—cannot be matched to any individual on California’s current voter file. Furthermore, the analysis identified that thousands of U.S. citizens appear to have been erroneously included on the government’s list of ineligible voters. While the researchers confirmed at least 22 individuals on the list are documented U.S. citizens, they suggest the actual number of wrongly flagged citizens is likely much higher.
“This review proves, at least as a preponderance of the evidence, that demands of election officials under criminal and civil threats endangers the voting rights of plaintiff CHIRLA’s members and clients,” the filing states. The document was co-signed by Xavier Becerra, the Democratic candidate for California governor and an adviser to the UCLA Voting Rights Project.
The legal challenge underscores the growing tension between federal efforts to investigate voter eligibility and state-level election administration. The list has been widely criticized by local and state officials, who have characterized it as a collection of faulty data that risks disenfranchising legitimate voters.
Previously, the Trump administration had vehemently objected to releasing the list, arguing that the request for access amounted to a “fishing expedition” and citing concerns over the protection of sensitive personal information. However, the revelation that nearly half of the names on the list are entirely absent from voter records suggests that the federal government’s internal vetting processes for these allegations may be fundamentally flawed.
As the legal battle continues, civil rights advocates argue that the administration’s reliance on this specific data set has created unnecessary chaos during the election cycle, casting unwarranted suspicion on thousands of voters while creating a hostile environment for election workers tasked with verifying the integrity of the ballot. The Department of Justice has not yet provided a formal response to the new data-driven findings.
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