DOJ Sues California County Over Noncitizen Voting Records

The lawsuit alleges the Orange County Registrar of Voters concealed improper registrations by refusing to release records.

Orange County election stands await voters inside the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., on Sept. 16, 2020. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

The Trump administration has sued California’s Orange County Registrar of Voters Robert Page for allegedly withholding information that could reveal noncitizens were registered to vote.

The lawsuit, filed in federal district court, alleges that Orange County undermined voter confidence by “refusing transparency of its voter information in violation of federal voting laws” and  “concealing the unlawful registration of ineligible, noncitizen voters.”

“Voting by noncitizens is a federal crime, and states and counties that refuse to disclose all requested voter information are in violation of well-established federal elections laws” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division.

“Removal of noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls is critical to ensuring that the state’s voter rolls are accurate and that elections in California are conducted without fraudulent voting. The Department of Justice will hold jurisdictions that refuse to comply with federal voting laws accountable,” she said.

The lawsuit alleges that Page has refused to provide the DOJ with records pertaining to the removal of noncitizens from its voter registration list and has failed to maintain an accurate voter list in violation of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli posted on X on June 26 that Orange County refused “to hand over records showing noncitizens are registered to vote and received ballots in federal elections.”

Page did not respond directly to a media inquiry, but media liaison Enedina Chhim stated in an email to The Epoch Times that the county “does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation.”

The lawsuit stems from a complaint received by the Attorney General’s Office from the family member of a noncitizen in Orange County “indicating that the noncitizen received an unsolicited mail-in ballot” from the OC Registrar of Voters.

On June 2, 2025, the attorney general requested documents from Page from Jan. 1, 2020, “to present” showing the number of voter registration records in Orange County canceled because registrants didn’t meet citizenship requirements to vote, according to allegations in the complaint.

Page responded to the request but redacted information such a California driver’s licenses and identification card numbers, Social Security numbers, California secretary of State-assigned voter identification numbers, language preference, and images of registrants’ signatures, according to the complaint.

The legal complaint stated that Page cited state law as the reason for the redactions, and on June 17 the DOJ responded to him indicating the data redaction prohibits the Attorney General’s Office from making an accurate assessment of the whether the OC Registrar of Voters acted in compliance with HAVA and the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).

The Attorney General’s Office holds that such records are not exempt from the NVRA’s public disclosure provision and is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief.