LA Registrar Says Citizenship Check Stops at Voter’s Word—Even After Federal Charges

A legal fight over election integrity is playing out in Los Angeles courts this week, with LA officials admitting that they have no way to check citizenship beyond what voters write on the form.

Monica Flores, an assistant registrar-recorder at the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office, told a federal court Tuesday that their citizenship check stops at whatever a voter writes on the form. That admission came just a day after the Department of Justice charged 28 people with lying on that exact form to register and vote.

“The Registrar has no authority under state or federal law to withhold or set aside the ballot of a registered voter on the basis of a third party’s assertion that the voter may not be a citizen, has no information beyond the voter’s own attestation with which to determine citizenship, and has no lawful means of obtaining such information,” the filing states.

“Finally, I do not believe the Registrar has authority to or can comply with either the government’s proposed injunction that it ‘confirm the citizenship of [each] person who sent a segregated vote-by-mail ballot’ or that it do so beyond relying on a ‘person’s registration-related attestation’ of citizenship as designated in state and federal law,” the filing adds.

The admission leaves the county with a simple problem. Just last week the DOJ delivered a list of over 20,000 names to the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, claiming the individuals on the list were likely noncitizens who are registered to vote in the state. The county declined to set those ballots aside, arguing it has no authority to act on a third party’s assertion and no independent way to check the names itself.

The Kick Off

On Monday, the DOJ held a press conference revealing officials arrested 11 foreign nationals and charged a total of 28 foreign nationals for federal crimes. The allegations include making false statements in a naturalization application and fraudulent voter registration.

The bulk of those charged, 11 people, lived in Los Angeles County. Three lived in Fresno County, three lived in San Diego County, two lived in Sacramento County, one lived in Orange County and the rest lived across the state.

“Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a lawful American citizen,” acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said Monday. “Each of the 28 defendants charged today appears on the list of more than 20,000 likely noncitizen registrants we provided to California election officials last week. California refused to look at that list. Today’s charges show exactly what that refusal puts at risk. California must verify the citizenship of those more than 20,000 registrants before mail-in ballots are counted.”

The Daily Signal reached out to multiple registrars of counties involved. In Sacramento County, where two of the defendants live, a public information manager said the Sacramento County Voter Registration and Elections (VRE) is aware of the charges.

“Although a federal complaint, indictment, and information merely contains accusations and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law, VRE has flagged voter information for these two individuals and further action will be taken based upon the outcome of the federal proceedings and guidance received from the California Secretary of State who is solely responsible for determining eligibility for voter registration, voter preregistration, and voting,” Ken Casparis, public information officer for Sacramento County, told the Daily Signal.

“VRE consistently follows established federal and state laws and procedures as well as guidance from the California Secretary of State regarding voter registration records and voter eligibility,” he added. “VRE will continue to follow all applicable legal requirements and guidance from state election officials to protect voters’ access to the ballot and ensure elections are administered in accordance with the law.”

San Diego County’s Registrar of Voters Deputy Director Sarah Sweeney confirmed that the office found “at least two of the four individuals named are no longer actively registered in San Diego County.”

“The Registrar did not initiate contact with, nor have reason to question the attestation of, citizenship in the voter registration records for the individuals listed,” Sweeney told the Daily Signal.

Both Fresno and Orange County’s registrars declined to answer questions, stating they are unable to confirm the registration status of any individual and referring to the state’s law requiring a formal application for voter registration information.

According to DOJ officials, all 28 people charged Monday were on the list of over 20,000 names the department had handed to the state last week. Per federal election law, noncitizens can’t vote in federal or state elections. But the county’s response doesn’t dispute that those names were on the list. Instead, it states that California law does not let election officials act on a third party’s claim that someone is not a citizen during the election, and that the registrar has nothing beyond the voter’s own statement on the registration form to go on.

The Argument

To support its position, the county submitted a sample review of 200 records drawn from the list. According to a court filing, the review found that 42.9% of the names had canceled registration records, 42.4% were still active, and 43% had already been mailed a ballot. It also showed that 71.2% of the sampled names had never voted.

Despite the county’s own sampling, it still leaves central questions open. Some of the canceled records had already been mailed a ballot, and the review never checked the 28 people the DOJ charged on Monday. Notably, the county also did not say how it picked the 200 records.

The county’s filings also include a declaration from Aman Bhullar, a principal information systems analyst with the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office. Bhullar said the county placed its voter registration systems under a Level 3 change freeze on Oct. 14, which limits system updates during the election period.

“The purpose of the freeze is to reduce risk to the system’s integrity by ensuring that system maintenance is performed only during the times that pose the lowest risk to the elections environment,” the Tuesday filing states. “Attempting to execute the DOJ’s demand would require violating the Registrar’s Freeze Policy.”

“Changes of this magnitude are considered major changes and have been restricted as Level Two changes since October 2, 2026. In the normal course of business, any change that is not meant to restore service or prevent imminent outages should not be approved,” the filing adds.

The county’s court filings also show who is helping make that argument.

Behind the Scenes

Listed as co-counsel alongside the Los Angeles County Counsel’s office is the Public Rights Project, an Oakland-based group that describes itself as helping local governments “ensure their communities thrive” as they invest in their “skills, capacity, and leadership,” which includes running an Election Protection Hub that offers free legal support to election officials, according to its site.

“By providing local governments with legal support, training, and other resources, we can realize a country where our democratic institutions are strong, responsive, and accountable to all people,” the site states.

Public Rights Project began as a fiscally sponsored project of the Tides Center, a major progressive fiscal sponsor that has received millions from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations. Open Society itself also made direct grants to the group while it was still under Tides, including $336,500 in 2017 to help launch it, $500,000 in 2019, and $200,000 in 2021.

By 2023, the Tides Center gifting reached roughly $1.2 million to the Public Rights Project for “equity, human rights, and economic empowerment,” according to its own filings. 

The Tides network has long been used by progressive donors, including Open Society, to route money to projects while limiting public visibility of the original funders. Open Society has given the broader Tides network tens of millions over the years.

In its most recent Form 990, covering the fiscal year ending December 2025, Public Rights Project reported $15.4 million in revenue, almost entirely from grants, and $10.8 million in expenses.

Its founder and CEO, Jill Habig, previously served as special counsel to then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris and later worked as deputy campaign manager on Harris’ U.S. Senate campaign. Habig also served as policy director for Harris’ transition team and later worked on the Biden-Harris transition team, as well as the transition team for Democrat California Sen. Alex Padilla. Habig has also received a fellowship from the Open Society Foundations.

In addition to receiving funding from the Tides Center, Public Rights Project has had financial help from Crankstart, the Democracy Fund, the Ford Foundation, and the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, among others. In 2023, the Crankstart Foundation, the philanthropy of Sequoia Capital partner Michael Moritz, alone gave the group $1.5 million specifically for its free and fair elections program.

With media attention now on the case, the latest filings show a change in the judge assigned to the claims. While initially assigned to Trump-appointee Judge John W. Holcomb, Wednesday’s filings show it was transferred to Clinton-appointee Judge David O. Carter. 

Carter previously dismissed a related DOJ lawsuit seeking California’s unredacted voter rolls.

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