Phillip Talbert, a former U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of California, said it seems coordinated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt appears to me that there\u2019s a coordinated effort, one, to try to get the state of California to comply with the department\u2019s request that it go through its voter rolls and eliminate people who are noncitizens, and then hold the ability of people who are likely noncitizens, essentially prevent their votes from counting,\u201d he said. \u201cHere, it seems like they\u2019re trying to find legitimate cases of voter fraud that they can indict, and then show \u2014 hey \u2014 here\u2019s cases of voter fraud we\u2019re prosecuting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Federal subpoenas are multiplying; help us track where voter data goes.Give $10<\/a><\/p>\n President Donald Trump and others in his administration over two terms in the White House have alleged widespread voter fraud for years without finding evidence of it. These latest federal requests for voter information caused concern and outrage<\/a> among San Diego County\u2019s congressional representatives and county supervisors in responses to questions by inewsource. \u00a0<\/p>\n All of the five federal subpoenas for the San Diego County Registrar of Voters came from the Southern District\u2019s offices in downtown San Diego, headed by Adam Gordon, the records show. A county spokesperson said the five subpoenas collectively sought information about 25 voters.<\/p>\n In San Diego, the first was issued at the end of May seeking general voting records showing \u201cparticipation or ballots cast in federal elections\u201d without specified dates. It specifically sought, \u201cunredacted records of voter registration, including but not limited to: applications for voter registration; and records of voting history.\u201d<\/p>\n A July subpoena sought records in connection with the November 2024 election, and three September subpoenas sought multiple years of voting records, from five to 15 years, dating back to 2011.<\/p>\n The July subpoena requested \u201cthe ballot itself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Two of the September subpoenas seek supporting voting material such as identification documents, utility bills, rental or mortgage records and attestations of citizenship. Those two September subpoenas are the only ones to include a disclaimer telling the registrar to avoid providing the ballot\u2019s contents.<\/p>\n The documents, which inewsource requested from the county on Sept. 21, do not disclose the names of voters whose information was sought.\u00a0<\/p>\n A county spokesperson said it complied with the subpoenas \u201cas required by law.\u201d A statement said, \u201cNo ballots were produced, nor was any record disclosed that could indicate how any person voted\u2014not in response to the July 14 subpoena, nor in response to any other subpoena. The County does not maintain records that can link a voter to their ballot, and both state and federal law prohibit releasing any information that would reveal voter selections.\u201d<\/p>\n The Imperial County Registrar of Voters Linsey Dale told inewsource that the office received requests for information about four voters and would provide \u201call information as allowed by law\u201d in response to the subpoenas.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Registrar of Voters has no ability to prove residency of a voter and must rely on the California Secretary of State for verification,\u201d she said. \u201cIf a voter signs the affirmation contained in the voter registration document that they are a U.S. Citizen, as the Registrar of Voters I must consider this to be the truth unless alternative documentation proves otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n Southern District spokesperson Kelly Thornton said that the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office had not filed any voter fraud cases this year as of the beginning of October. The last subpoena sent to San Diego County\u2019s voting officials ordered a court appearance by Oct. 1.<\/p>\n The Southern District did not respond to a request for comment on the subpoenas.\u00a0<\/p>\n A 48-hour deadline<\/p>\n On Thursday, the Trump administration sued the state of California, its secretary of state and a Los Angeles County official for failing to meet a 48-hour deadline to comb through 20,000 voter records to verify citizenship and potentially exclude them from the voting tally.<\/p>\n The unprecedented federal intervention in a national election came\u00a0 nearly two weeks10 days after ballots had been sent to California voters.<\/p>\n The Department of Homeland Security alleged in July<\/a> there were as many as 190,000 noncitizens registered to vote in California, without providing evidence. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber responded by requesting more information in order to be able to verify the claims.\u00a0<\/p>\n That information arrived Tuesday, over three months later, on a thumbUSB drive in an envelope with a password attached on a sticky note and letter imposing the 48-hour deadline.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe USDOJ\u2019s relentless efforts to unlawfully gain access to states\u2019 protected voter data and purge voter rolls serve only to cause chaos and fuel public distrust in our elections,\u201d Weber, a former school board member and state Assemblymember from San Diego, said in a press release.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCalifornia has robust state law requirements that only U.S. citizens can register to vote and that any non-eligible registrants are removed from the State\u2019s voter rolls.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Los Angeles County registrar also received the list of alleged noncitizen voters and the letter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Talbert, the former U.S. attorney in California, said the process seemed \u201cbackwards.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re asking California to determine citizenship,\u201d he said. \u201cThe federal government should be the one who knows the citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n The San Diego County Registrar of Voters Office told inewsource that it received no such letter.\u00a0<\/p>\n Spokeswoman Antonia Hutzel said in a statement that, \u201cThe Registrar follows all federal and state laws regarding voter eligibility, and any action to remove a voter must be based on verifiable information \u2014 not assertions rooted in unconfirmed data matching.\u201d<\/p>\n She added, \u201cMaintaining accurate voter rolls is an ongoing process governed by law and is a core responsibility of the Registrar\u2019s office.\u201d<\/p>\n She also emphasized that, \u201celections in San Diego County remain safe and secure.\u201d<\/p>\n It is unclear how many San Diego County voters are on the Justice Department\u2019s list. The citation in the Justice Department\u2019s lawsuit against California of nearly 20,000 likely noncitizens is about a tenth of the figure it announced three months earlier.<\/a><\/p>\n David Becker, a former Justice Department attorney who is now executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research in Washington, D.C., said he expects the list of suspected non-citizen voters to be \u201crife with errors.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDHS has a very poor record of identifying non-citizens,\u201d he said at a Thursday press briefing. \u201cIt has a very poor record of publicly overstating the number of non-citizens on a list and then later admitting they don\u2019t have very many. And now DHS and DOJ have a record of waiting inexplicably for three months before coming clean with California as to any potential non-citizens on the voter list.\u201d<\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s claims of widespread noncitizen voting have repeatedly failed under scrutiny in other states. In July, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said as many as 256,000 noncitizens were registered<\/a> to vote in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Within a month, federal officials told Pennsylvania<\/a> they did not have \u201chigh confidence\u201d in a count of 14,576 for that state, and told Nevada they had identified only 185<\/a> of the nearly 16,000 people they had flagged. Nevada officials later said all of those 185 were citizens, which DHS disputes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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