Trump DOJ flagged 20,930 Californians as possible noncitizen voters. 8,880 aren't even on the rolls.

The first independent check of the Trump Justice Department's list of California "noncitizen" voters found that 8,880 of its 20,930 names, about 42%, don't match anyone on the state's current voter file. The same review found at least 22 U.S. citizens on the list.

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) filed the analysis Saturday in federal court in Washington, D.C., in its lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, the Associated Press reported. Two data scientists with the UCLA Voting Rights Project, which represents CHIRLA, did the work: political scientist Matt Barreto and Michael Rios, Democracy Docket reported. Xavier Becerra, the Democratic candidate for California governor and an adviser to the project, co-signed the filing, according to the AP.

The list reached outside hands only because Chief Judge James E. Boasberg ordered the department on Friday to give it to CHIRLA's lawyers. The department had called the request a "fishing expedition," the AP reported.

The Justice Department has used the list to demand that California election officials set aside these voters' ballots, and it threatened election workers with prosecution. Multiple judges have rejected the demand, and on Friday a Ninth Circuit panel refused the department's emergency request. The department claims DHS built the list from a probe of California's voter records but has not said how, Democracy Docket reported.

Barreto wrote that he is "certain that there are at least 22 entries on the CHIRLA citizen list that fully match to the DHS ineligible list," according to Democracy Docket. The report counts 66 more CHIRLA members as near-certain matches.

The finding fits California's own review. The state told a federal court that about 1 in 4 people on the list were born in the United States.

Those at risk are eligible voters, many of them naturalized citizens, whose ballots the department wants pulled, and the county election workers it threatened.

Still unknown: why 8,880 names aren't on the voter file, how many people on the list are citizens, and how the Justice Department will answer in court. The reports we reviewed carried no response to the analysis from the department or from California Secretary of State Shirley Weber.

We condemn the Justice Department for threatening election workers over a list it fought to keep anyone from checking.

California voters can check their ballot's status at Where's My Ballot?

Sources

• More than 40% of names on DOJ list of alleged noncitizens not on California's voter rolls: analysis (Associated Press, via KSL)
• Immigrant rights group finds dozens of U.S. citizens on DOJ's California alleged noncitizen voter list (Democracy Docket)
• Trump DOJ's California noncitizen voter list riddled with errors (Salon)
• Judge orders Trump DOJ to hand over its list of 20,000 California voters it calls noncitizens (WorkersRights.News)
• Appeals court denies Trump DOJ's bid to pull ballots of 20,000 California voters (WorkersRights.News)