California County Sued by Election Watchdog for Withholding Nonvoter Records

The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) filed a federal lawsuit against Alameda County, California, for allegedly failing to make noncitizen voting records available.

In the complaint, which was filed on Monday, the election integrity watchdog group claims that the Alameda County Registrar of Voters violated the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 by not disclosing records of foreign nationals registering and voting in California elections for more than 20 years.

Commonly called the Motor Voter Act, the legislation streamlines the voter registration process by requiring that states offer voter registration opportunities when people renew their driver’s licenses.

In September, PILF requested “all records showing the number of voter registration records canceled because the registrant did not satisfy the citizenship requirements for voter registration,” as well as “records related to each cancellation including copies of each registrant’s voter registration application, voter registration record, voting history, and related correspondence sent or received by the Registrar’s Office.”

County officials reportedly responded to the legal group’s request, saying they would make the voting records available by Jan. 19 after previously claiming they did “not have access to the voter registration database.” The county missed the deadline, however, and has reportedly been silent since.

“For more than four months, we have been trying to obtain records about foreign nationals getting on the voter roll,” PILF President J. Christian Adams said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Alameda County’s lack of transparency and utter disrespect for federal law is particularly alarming as we enter a presidential election year. The public has a right to inspect election records, including these important records that reveal mistakes and errors by election officials.”

In May, Adams told “Just the News, No Noise” TV show that the “vast majority” of noncitizens are “motor voter registrations,” and said that many noncitizens lie about being U.S. citizens and “get registered” to vote.

“Some people, guys, say, ‘No,’ and they still get registered to vote,” Adams said. “I’ve just got stacks of voter registration forms. People will actually say, ‘No, I’m not a U.S. citizen.’ They still get on the voter rolls.”

The concerns about noncitizens voting come as nearly 2.5 million migrants were encountered trying to illegally cross the U.S. southern border during fiscal year 2023, breaking the record of the previous year.