LA County admits it can't verify voters' citizenship. Nearly 3 in 10 on the federal list have voted.

Los Angeles County's elections office has told a federal judge it has no way to check whether the people on its voter rolls are citizens. It relies on what voters swear on their registration forms.

The admission is in sworn declarations the office filed Tuesday in the Justice Department's lawsuit against California, United States v. California, in federal court in Los Angeles. In the same filings, the county reported that roughly 28.8% of the people it checked from the federal government's list of likely noncitizens have voted before.

"No information beyond the voter's own attestation"

Under state law, a person "may prove he or she is a citizen by his or her certification under penalty of perjury on the affidavit of registration." In plain terms: the applicant checks the citizenship box and signs.

Monica Flores, the assistant registrar-recorder in charge of voter registration for Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan's office, told the court that the registrar "accepts the under oath representation" of citizenship "and requires no additional verification."

She went further. The registrar, she declared, "has no information beyond the voter's own attestation with which to determine citizenship, and has no lawful means of obtaining such information." The office "does not independently house citizenship-related information," such as "immigration records, travel records, naturalization records," and "has no direct access to federal citizenship data." She added that "California has not authorized use of the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements ('SAVE') program for the 2026 General Election."

The county's lawyers made the same point: the county "is not equipped to verify voter citizenship."

What the county's sample shows

The Justice Department's list names more than 20,000 people that federal immigration officials say are registered to vote in California and are "highly likely to be noncitizen aliens." Of those, 7,035 have Los Angeles County addresses. County staff reviewed a sample of 200 of them. According to a declaration by Aman Bhullar, the assistant registrar-recorder who runs the office's information technology bureau:

- **71.2% "had never voted in the past elections."** That means about 28.8% — roughly 57 of the 200 — have voted at least once. - **86 were mailed ballots for the Nov. 3 election.** The 112 who were not had canceled or inactive registrations. - **42.4% have active registrations,** 42.9% canceled and 4.6% inactive.

If the sample holds across all 7,035 Los Angeles County names, roughly 2,000 flagged people there would have a voting history. That is a Newsline estimate, not a figure from the filings.

The county's numbers don't add up

The county used this sample to tell the court the federal list "is unreliable." But its own figures do not reconcile:

- **None of the percentages work out to whole people in a sample of 200.** 71.2% of 200 is 142.4 people; 42.9% is 85.8; 42.4% is 84.8; 4.6% is 9.2. Most of the figures fit a sample of 198, not 200, and the 4.6% fits neither. - **The registration categories cover only 89.9% of the sample.** Canceled, active and inactive records add up to about 180 of the 200. The filings do not say what the other 20 are. - **The ballot counts contradict the percentages.** Bhullar says all 112 people who were not mailed ballots had canceled or inactive registrations. But by the county's own percentages, canceled and inactive records together make up 47.5% of the sample, or about 95 people, not 112. - **86 people mailed ballots plus 112 not mailed is 198, not 200.**

Flores called the review "preliminary" and said "quality control is continuing."

The county argues the list is unreliable because, "among the records for which birthplace information was meaningfully reported, 38.9% indicated that they were born in the United States." Its lawyers put the figure at 25.8% of the full sample. But the county's own declarations say it has nothing beyond what registrants themselves claim. That is the information the county is relying on to say people on the list are citizens.

The filings do not say how many of the roughly 57 who voted reported a U.S. birthplace.

What the Justice Department wants

The department asked the state on Oct. 13 to set aside ballots from people on the list until their citizenship can be confirmed — not to cancel them. "If California verifies the citizenship of those whose ballots are segregated, California can and should tabulate their votes," it told the court. "No one who is legally allowed to vote would be impacted."

It calls the 20,000 names "the floor of potential noncitizen California voters" and says USCIS has identified "a separate batch of more than 17,000 voting records potentially tied to noncitizens."

California refused. Secretary of State Shirley Weber has called the federal claims unsubstantiated, and state and county lawyers are fighting the request in court. The county says that even if it had the authority, it could not review the ballots and still certify the election on time. The Justice Department has acknowledged that it cannot investigate tens of thousands of people itself before the election ends.

Charges already filed

On Monday, federal prosecutors charged 28 green-card holders across California with registering to vote by falsely swearing they were citizens, including four from San Diego County. Prosecutors say the false sworn statements were approved and many of the defendants voted. All 28 are on the same federal list. A criminal complaint is only an accusation, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The county's figures spread on X on Wednesday after the account Wall Street Apes posted them. Ballots for the Nov. 3 election are already in the mail. Earlier this month, the Justice Department gave the state 48 hours to review the list, and Newsline reported on records showing a noncitizen registered and voted in California's 2024 presidential election.