Legal filing questions Trump’s claims of non-citizen voting in California

A new court filing has cast further doubt on the accuracy of a list of “likely non-citizen” voters that the administration of United States President Donald Trump sent to the state of California ahead of the midterm elections. On Saturday, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), an advocacy group, submitted an analysis to the court conducted by two data scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). It found that more than four in every 10 names on the list were not on California’s voter rolls. It also found that thousands of potentially eligible US citizens were incorrectly identified as ineligible to vote. The Trump administration’s list, delivered to California in early October, had suggested that as many as 20,930 “likely non-citizens” were registered on the state’s voter rolls. That list has formed the basis of a lawsuit, filed on October 15, that calls on California to sequester any ballots sent to those “likely non-citizens”, preventing them from being tallied as part of voting results. The lawsuit is unfolding in the final days before Tuesday’s pivotal midterm elections, which will decide which party controls the US Congress, as well as key state and local offices. Trump has expressed fear that, if his Republican Party loses its majorities in the two chambers of Congress, he could be impeached. The Republican leader also has a track record of spreading false information about elections, including that his defeat in the 2020 presidential race was the result of a “rigged” vote. Under the US Constitution’s Elections Clause, election administration falls solely to the states, though Congress may pass regulations governing voting.