The governor’s office said Monday that claims of widespread voter fraud by the Trump administration began unraveling after the Trump Department of Justice charged 28 people and acknowledged its list of suspected “illegal” voters may include U.S. citizens.

The office noted the episode began earlier this year when Homeland Security Secretary sent a letter claiming as many as 190,000 “illegal” voters on California rolls; the governor’s office said no evidence or sources were provided.

The governor’s office said the Trump DOJ later delivered a USB flash drive to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk with roughly 20,000 names; the county and the California secretary of state asked for the source and methodology and received no response.

Los Angeles County filed that a 200-name sample from the DOJ’s 20,000-name batch showed 38.9% were born in the United States, the county’s filing says.

The governor’s office cited reporting by LAMaterial that the group of 28 charged contained more registered Republicans than Democrats, undercutting the administration’s narrative of widespread Democratic-driven fraud.

Experts were skeptical; UCLA law professor Rick Hasen wrote, "If [the] DOJ could prove many more cases, we would have heard about it," and David Becker of the Center for Innovation and Election Research noted the 28 prosecutions represent about 0.0001% of active California voters.

The practical consequence for Californians is straightforward; even if every prosecution is upheld, the cases would amount to a vanishingly small share of the state’s voter rolls and do not substantiate earlier claims of mass noncitizen voting, the governor’s office said.

The governor’s office framed the episode as part of a broader, long-running effort to cast doubt on California elections; state and county officials continue to seek the DOJ’s underlying data and methods.

Federal

Markwayne Mullin

Secretary of Homeland Security · Republican

Named once in this story.

Everything the Journal has reported on MarkwayneOfficial site

Portrait: U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS photo by Tia Dufour) / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Sources & methodology

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Office of the Governor of California

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