With one week left before the midterm elections, California is facing a federal lawsuit alleging that non-citizens were registered to vote, received mail-in ballots, and, in some cases, voted.
A federal judge is expected to determine the next steps in the case on Tuesday.
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, who previously served as California’s secretary of state, addressed the issue in an interview on California Politics 360.
“There’s the legal, and then there’s the political observation here,” Padilla said. “The legal [issue is] 28 potential unlawful voters in a state where there’s more than 23 million people registered to vote. So let’s keep it in context. It’s a very, very, very small number. The one that they seem to be highlighting the most is actually a registered Republican. So that’s not lost on me either.”
Padilla compared the situation to Nevada, where initial claims of widespread voter fraud were later disproven. “Over time, as you looked into each individual, there was an explanation. An explanation in Nevada was that two zero people who unlawfully registered, maybe that’s zero. Maybe it’s just a small handful in California,” he said.
He expressed concern about the timing of the lawsuit.
“Right before the election, the Trump administration has once again tried to create this chaos, trying to sow confusion and create doubt for an election that by all indicators, not just the polls, but all indicators, are not going to go up for Republicans and Trump allies. So they’re trying to disrupt. That’s my take on it,” Padilla said.
The Department of Justice has acknowledged that the alleged non-citizens represent a small fraction of California’s voter rolls. However, they argue that even one unlawful vote cancels out the vote of an eligible American citizen.
Padilla agreed that voter fraud is unlawful but questioned the federal government’s methodology.
“Part of the questions that we’re asking is this list of 20,000 they asked California to look up and try to address—where is this coming from? And they’re not giving us an answer. They have admitted that their list is going to include a lot of citizens and people who are eligible to vote,” he said.
He added, “Just as much as I want to keep ineligible people from voting, I also want to make sure that every eligible American is not kept from voting.”
The lawsuit has highlighted discrepancies in access to immigration records. While the federal government has access to such records, the L.A. County Registrar of Voters stated in court filings that they do not have a way to verify if a registered voter is a non-citizen.
Padilla explained that California determines voter eligibility during the registration process. “If you’ve done it through the DMV, when you first applied for your driver’s license or your ID, you know, people show up with a birth certificate or a passport to begin that process at the DMV,” he said. “For people who are registering to do a paper registration card, you’re signing under penalty of perjury. And history has shown us that voter fraud is exceedingly, exceedingly, exceedingly rare,” he said.
He expressed concern that the administration’s actions could disenfranchise eligible voters. “In this administration’s zeal to try to advance their agenda and hold on to power, they’re going to keep eligible people from being able to cast ballots or delay to keep eligible voters from having their ballots counted,” Padilla said.
The senator also addressed immigration enforcement, calling the administration’s approach “cruel.” Padilla has been traveling the state and visiting various detention facilities in California.
He described inconsistent conditions in detention facilities and emphasized the need for congressional oversight. “The vast majority of people that are being arrested, detained, or even deported may be undocumented, but they don’t have any violent criminal history. In fact, they’ve been working in jobs that the federal government deems essential,” Padilla said.
Padilla also discussed the election observer program he helped launch through the U.S. Senate.
“This is official United States Senate employees, both Democrats and Republicans, staff members who have been legally trained to act as election observers,” he said, noting they will be stationed at polls in states where there is an election for the U.S. Senate (not California this cycle).
He emphasized the importance of public confidence in elections amid ongoing challenges.
“The more professionals we can have out in the field, and we’re fanning out at least across nine, ten states to observe Senate races, then I think the better we can mitigate or discourage any shenanigans,” Padilla said.
KCRA 3 Political Director Ashley Zavala reports in-depth coverage of top California politics and policy issues. She is also the host of “California Politics 360.” Get informed each Sunday at 8:30 a.m. on KCRA 3.