Justice Dept. Seeks Contempt Charges Over 40% Error Rate in Voter List

The U.S. Department of Justice filed court papers on Sunday urging a federal judge to consider contempt charges against an immigrant rights group. The filing follows the publication of a data analysis that challenged the accuracy of a government list of suspected noncitizen voters in California.

The dispute centers on a list of more than 20,000 individuals that the Trump administration alleges are noncitizens registered to vote in the state. On Friday, U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg granted the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, access to federal data on these 20,000 people. The judge based in Washington, D.C., restricted the group's use of the data to arguments regarding their legal standing and ordered them not to disclose any names from the list.

Attorneys for CHIRLA filed documents on Saturday revealing that their analysis found more than 40 percent of the people on the list do not appear in the state's voter file. The analysis also identified 22 individuals on the list who were likely naturalized U.S. citizens. The group stated that thousands more U.S. citizens appeared to be included in the data.

The Justice Department argued in its Sunday filing that the group's analysis was irrelevant to the specific question of legal standing. A document from the department stated that the report's focus on alleged inaccuracies affecting California voters generally had no relevance to whether the particular plaintiffs in this case have standing. The filing suggested Judge Boasberg refer the matter to the Justice Department for an investigation into possible criminal contempt of court.

Alberto Lammers, a spokesman for the University of California, Los Angeles' Voting Rights Project, said in an emailed statement that the plaintiffs' counsel and their experts fully complied with the court's orders. The project filed the case and performed the data analysis for the immigrant rights group.

In a separate matter, the Justice Department appealed a ruling from Friday night by U.S. District Court Judge Trina L. Thompson in San Francisco. That decision barred the department from demanding election offices remove possible noncitizens from voter rolls, separate their ballots, or threaten legal action. Judge Thompson noted she ruled before the federal government could file its initial arguments. She scheduled a hearing on the appeal for Monday.

This legal fight is part of a wider battle over the administration's lists of alleged noncitizen voters. A federal judge in California previously rejected a demand that election officials separate ballots cast by these voters, citing concerns that last-minute orders could wreak havoc on the state's election. California election officials have stated the list contains numerous errors and that they lack the time to verify voter eligibility before the election. The administration maintains the list was compiled from state voter registration data compared to federal citizenship records.