The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Orange County Registrar of Voters Robert Page after he refused to provide records regarding the removal of non-citizens from voter rolls.
According to the complaint, Orange County has “undermined” election integrity by “(1) refusing transparency of its voter information, in violation of federal voting laws, and (2) concealing the unlawful registration of ineligible, non-citizen voters.”
The complaint comes after Attorney General Pam Bondi received a report from a family member of a non-citizen residing in Orange County suggesting that the non-citizen “received an unsolicited mail-in ballot,” the filing explains.
While Page responded to the DOJ’s request for information, he “redacted the following information regarding the non-citizens identified on the Orange County voter registration list: the California driver’s license and identification card numbers, social security numbers, California Secretary of State-assigned voter identification numbers, language preference, and images of registrants’ signatures,” citing “several California Stateus as the basis for the redactions.”
“Unless and until ordered to do so by this Court, the Defendant’s refusal to provide these records prevents the Attorney General from making a determination of the Defendant’s compliance with the list maintenance requirements of [Help America Vote Act] and represents an ongoing violation of the law,” the complaint states.
“Voting by non-citizens is a federal crime, and states and counties that refuse to disclose all requested voter information are in violation of well-established federal elections laws,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. “Removal of non-citizens from the state’s voter rolls is critical to ensuring that the State’s voter rolls are accurate and that elections in California are conducted without fraudulent voting. The Department of Justice will hold jurisdictions that refuse to comply with federal voting laws accountable.”
