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Voters wait to cast their ballots in the California Statewide Special Election at the Huntington Beach Central Library on Nov. 4, 2025.The Trump administration wants states to turn over their unredacted voter rolls.
Many states, including California, have said"No." What’s behind the federal government's quest to collect voter data? What could be done with that information? And why are election officials in California and around the country resisting the federal government's demands? LAist has taken a deep dive into the topic in our latest episode of the LAist podcast,The U.S. Department of Justice says it needs states’ complete voter files to make sure states are preventing voter fraud. But critics worry the government has other motives, including trying to amass a national voter file that could be used to attack political opponents, and cancel the registrations of legitimate voters., saying the federal government doesn’t have a right to the personal information of the state’s 23 million voters. But that’s unlikely to be the end of the battle.California is among several dozen states that have thus far resisted the Trump administration’s demands for access to sensitive information, including driver’s license and Social Security numbers, about tens of millions of voters. Earlier this month, a federal judge in L.A., saying the federal government doesn’t have a right to the personal information of the state’s 23 million voters. But that’s unlikely to be the end of the battle: the Trump administration has nearly identical lawsuits pending against 22 other states and the District of Columbia., we examined what’s behind the Trump administration's quest to collect voter data. What could be done with that information? And why are election officials in California and around the country resisting the federal government's demands?Before we dive in, what’s the topline here? The U.S. Department of Justice says it needs states’ complete voter files to make sure states are preventing voter fraud. But critics worry the government has other motives, including trying to amass a national voter file that could be used to attack political opponents, and cancel the registrations of legitimate voters. Jill, you've reported on local politics in Southern California for years. How and when did this battle between California and the federal government over sensitive voter data begin? I'm based in Orange County and I've covered quite a few elections there. Orange County's election system and the Registrar of Voters is really top-notch and super well-respected around the state. But recently a couple of very big things happened in Orange County that election integrity skeptics would say confirmed their suspicions that our election systems are not as secure as officials make them out to be.. A woman in Costa Mesa named Laura Yourex registered her dog Maya to vote and then actually voted for the dog in the 2021 recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom and the 2022 presidential primary.No, but fair question. Yourex just registered the dog to vote and then she turned in the ballots that were sent out in the dog’s name.and she could face six years in state prison. She said she did it to expose flaws in the election system. Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer talks about election security at the county registrar's office on Feb. 26, 2024.We have to back up a little for this one. Michael Gates, the former city attorney of Huntington Beach, was contacted by a resident in October 2024 who said that their father-in-law, who was not a U.S. citizen, had received a ballot.in the Trump administration's Department of Justice, and one of the first things he does is request records from the Orange County Registrar of people removed from the list of registered voters because they weren’t citizens. Page, the Registrar, gives him 17 records of people removed since 2020 because they didn't meet the citizenship requirement. But he redacts sensitive information, including their driver’s license and Social Security numbers, per state law on elections and privacy. And then the DOJ sues the Registrar to get access to that redacted, sensitive information. Soon after, the DOJ sues California for its entire, unredacted database of registered voters, about 23 million people. To date, the federal government has sued 24 states and the District of Columbia for their voter data. The In California, federal Judge David O. Carter recently ruled that the federal government is not entitled to that data. A judge in Oregon made a similar, tentative ruling. But all the other cases are still pending.I think, in part, it speaks to the increasing partisan divide in everything, including how we run our elections. There are some states that have handed all of this data over willingly to the federal government. They're all red states. Most, but definitely not all, of the states that have resisted handing over the data are blue states. The states that are resisting have several main reasons. For one thing, the Constitution grants states the responsibility to determine how they run elections, not the federal government. Elections are very clearly a state power. Another thing is that California law and similar laws in many other states prohibit those states from sharing private information about their voters.prohibit the federal government from collecting this kind of data without providing a very specific reason. Under the Privacy Act, the government also has to give public notice before they collect data, they have to say how they're going to use it, and they have to provide an opportunity for public comment. Elections experts and voting rights advocates have also weighed in on the debate. What have they told you about the federal government’s push to collect this data? One of their major questions is, what does the federal government plan to do with the data? The Trump administration hasn't clearly answered that question. According to critics, a big suspicion is that they want to use it for immigration enforcement. Bob Page, the Orange County Registrar of Voters, explains election operations to a group of reporters on Feb. 26, 2024.Officials have gone back and forth when asked if they plan to share this data with the Department of Homeland Security. But here's how that could work. There's a database run by the Department of Homeland Security calledthat's essentially a citizenship check. They could run all this voter data through that system to try to crosscheck whether there are non-citizens voting.So there's a concern about voter suppression, and about people who actually are eligible to vote being removed from voter rolls improperly. It’s important to note that state election officials and county election officials are constantly removing people from registration rolls who died or moved out of state. They're adding people who are registering to vote. They're changing people's addresses. It's a super dynamic system. And some experts, including Eileen O’Connor with the Brennan Center, expressed doubt that the federal government could do that better than individual states: “The states have a lot of safeguards in place to make sure they don't remove eligible voters, so they run lots of checks, they send out notices. They have certain time periods of time that they have to wait. The federal government isn't set up to do any of that. Not only do they not have the authority to do that, they don't have the tools, so one thing that could happen is they attempt to force the states to remove voters based on some sort of inaccurate matching that they attempt to do, with unknown databases.” O’Connor and others also told me they worry that the federal government could use the data to promote false claims about election fraud, and to target political opponents.Yes, from states and from privacy experts. If the federal government is, indeed, trying to compile a national voter file, that's something like 75% of Americans . Just imagine what a gold mine that would be for a hacker.that a DOGE employee improperly shared Americans’ private social security data with an outside political group, with the aim of overturning election results in some states. The Justice Department admitted to this in a court filing in a Earlier this month, Judge Carter agreed with California in his ruling dismissing the government's demand for voter data. What did he say in his ruling? Judge Carter essentially scolded the Justice Department for trying to use legislation intended to prevent voter suppression during the civil rights era to try to “amass and retain an unprecedented amount of confidential voter data.” He largely agreed with many of the concerns laid out by California and other states, and voting rights advocates. And he said further: “The centralization of this information by the federal government would have a chilling effect on voter registration which would inevitably lead to decreasing voter turnout as voters fear that their information is being used for some inappropriate or unlawful purpose. This risk threatens the right to vote which is the cornerstone of American democracy.” Carter also echoed some of the deeper concerns expressed by critics of this effort by the Trump administration, including that the government could use the data to spy on everyday Americans. The Privacy Act was actually put in place in response to Watergate and, where the government was spying on folks like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., on the Black Panthers, on anti-war protestors, on Black Americans, in general.What is likely to come next in this battle? How does this get resolved? Judge Carter said from the beginning that he wanted to make a ruling quickly under the assumption that the case would be appealed and could eventually make it to the Supreme Court. If that happens, the Supreme Court could have the final decision on whether the federal government gets access to voter data from California and all the other states it has sued. Can we go back to those 17 people in Orange County who were removed from the voter rolls. That incident kinda kicked off this whole battle for voter data, at least in California. How did those people get registered to vote in the first place if they weren’t citizens? when you get a license or change your address unless you opt out, or indicate that you are not eligible to vote. Basically, you have to check a box saying that you are a citizen. You attest, under penalty of perjury, to being a citizen. That’s required under federal election law. But you don’t have toAssistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon has vowed to root out voter fraud and "make our elections great again."These 17 people removed from the rolls, all but one self-reported that they were ineligible to vote. So it’s possible they made a mistake at the DMV. (The one who didn’t self-report, a Canadian citizen, wasStill, some people argue that checking a box attesting to citizenship is not a serious enough safeguard against people who are not eligible to vote actually registering to vote, and perhaps voting. And President Trump has put some of the most vocal critics in positions of power. Well, how big of a problem are incidents like the 17 non-citizens registered in O.C. and the voting dog? On the one hand, 17 people out of about two million registered voters in the county is not a lot. On the other, some elections are won by very slim margins. Still, many well-respected experts on elections, including Justin Levitt, a Loyola Law School professor, say there’s no indication of widespread election fraud. Yes, we could put in more requirements to guard against fraud, but it would likely come at the expense of shutting out, and at the least, making it more difficult for eligible people to register and vote. Levitt has this analogy he likes to make to put it in perspective: “It is always possible to safeguard the system more. Imagine that you live in a house or an apartment. Imagine that house or apartment has windows. That's a potential security problem, but you live with that because you'd rather live in an apartment with windows than brick-in all the windows. We could have a system that would be totally safe from voting if nobody voted. Every additional safeguard has to be subjected to costs and benefits in order to see whether it's worth it.”right now that would amend the National Voter Registration Act to require proof of citizenship to register to vote in a federal election. But there's still a really big debate about how expansive, how easy versus how hard we want to make it for people to vote. There's a history in this country of making it very difficult for certain people to vote, especially Black Americans. After the civil rights era, federal rules were put into place to try to encourage participation, to make it easier to vote. And so there's a big question of whether we want to go backwards. California voters might get a chance to weigh in on this debate in the fall, when we're likely to have a voter ID measure on the ballot. That measure is asking people whether we want to require people to show a photo ID when they vote, or to include the last four digits of a government issued ID on their mail-in ballot. It also would require the state to try to verify people's citizenship. So that'll be a real test of how Californians feel about this issue.explores the weird and secret bits of SoCal that would excite even the most jaded Angelenos. He also covers mental health.made Oscar history Thursday by garnering 16 nominations — including Best Director for Ryan Coogler and Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan — Angelique Jackson, senior entertainment writer at Variety, told LAist's“They were just completely blown away by the number of nominations, especially getting a few first-timers in there for some of their stars, like Michael B. Jordan,” Jackson said.made Oscar history Thursday by garnering 16 nominations — including Best Director for Ryan Coogler and Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan — Angelique Jackson, senior entertainment writer at Variety, told LAist's“They were just completely blown away by the number of nominations, especially getting a few first-timers in there for some of their stars, like Michael B. Jordan,” she said. Jackson added that Jordan, who has been working since he was a child and has delivered a “blockbuster movie star performance,” had been left out of the Oscars race until now.eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100has been, this just makes us all the more excited for what we’re going to see on that Oscars stage come March,” Jackson said. Elle Fanning, who has been acting since she was a child, also received her first Oscar nomination at age 27 for her role in Joachim Trier's film,Monterey Park officials have put the brakes on a proposal to build a data center like one pictured here in Quincy, Washington.Monterey Park city leaders have put the brakes on a proposed data center after hundreds of residents packed City Hall Wednesday night in opposition. The council approved a 45-day moratorium while it explores a permanent ban on data centers in the city.The Australian-based developer HMC Capital Strat Cap wants to build a nearly 250,000-square-foot data center in the Saturn business park.Residents voiced anger and fear about a data center bringing noise and air pollution to the city, and consuming vast amounts of energy. They also blasted city officials for not publicizing the project more.: City officials will draft a potential outright ban on data centers during the 45-day moratorium. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for HMC Capital Strat Cap who was at Wednesday’s meeting said the developer has been hearing residents’ concerns and would move forward with plans to hold a town meeting with them in the next couple weeks.If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.Local officials say the waste headed for the Calabasas landfill won't harm public health. Protesting residents living nearby aren't convinced.The Calabasas case: The landfill, owned by L.A. County, is a Class III site, which isn't permitted to accept hazardous materials. Calabasas argued that those could be present in fire debris. So the city ran multiple soil tests — on four trucks and one damaged property — and found elevated levels of copper and zinc in two of the samples. But the tests were unable to establish that hazardous waste meant to be kept out of the landfill was being dumped there. Further, according to the State Water Resources Control Board, wildfire ash can be excluded from being classified as hazardous waste.— which included the removal of waste including lithium batteries and asbestos — and visual inspections of materials dumped at the landfill satisfied the necessary requirements. The city seemed to want more comprehensive testing of material, but the judge wrote that the court couldn’t force a different testing process.The debris clearing process is all but over, so the likelihood of more material arriving from burned sites is low.As rebuilt houses in the Las Flores Mutual Water Company area restart water service, they could face a hefty charge. Here, a home under construction in Altadena last year.Last year’s fires not only destroyed homes and businesses, but also critical infrastructure, such as water delivery systems. Rebuilding that infrastructure is particularly challenging in unincorporated areas such as Altadena, which is primarily served by three tiny, private water companies.The Las Flores Mutual Water Company is one of those small companies — it has only about 1,500 customers, 75% of whom lost their homes in the Eaton Fire. In lieu of state and federal funds, residents will largely have to pick up the tab to rebuild needed infrastructure.Las Flores is proposing a $50 monthly charge to customers over the next five years. The company will present its final bill charge proposal and discuss consolidation with residents at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Altadena Public Library.Last year’s fires not only destroyed homes and businesses, but also critical infrastructure, such as water delivery systems. Rebuilding that infrastructure is particularly challenging in unincorporated areas such as Altadena, which is primarily served by three tiny, private water companies. The Las Flores Water Company is one of them — the company lost its two reservoirs in the Eaton Fire. And it has only about 1,500 customers, 75% of whom lost their homes in the fire. “So we're basically running the company off of 25% of the revenue that we used to have,” John Bednarksi, president of the company’s board, told LAist. The company is presenting its plans to address that shortfall at a meeting tonight. But rumors about the purpose of the meeting have been spreading online. Bednarski said that to keep from going bankrupt, the company is proposing charging customers an extra $50 a month for the next five years, or they can pay the lump sum of $3,000 and the company will pay them back interest at the end of the five-year period. The charges will apply only to households with existing water service. As others rebuild and connect to the system, the charge will kick in. The company is also looking to consolidate with one of the three other private Altadena water suppliers, Lincoln Avenue Water Company, which serves about 5,000 homes and businesses. The water companies have applied for funding from the State Water Resources Control Board to study whether they can merge. L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district includes Altadena, has publicly supported the idea. “We have to keep the lights on at the company and keep the water company serving water because that's a primary utility for people,” Bednarski said. “But I also think that as we start rebuilding, we want to build back better than we were before.”its final bill charge proposal and discuss consolidation with residents tonight. The proposals will not be voted on until a later date, Bednarski said.Another challenge with rebuilding private water companies is that they are ineligible for state and federal funds that public utilities have access to, said Greg Pierce, senior director of the Luskin Center for Innovation at UCLA and lead author of reports onThat largely means the costs to rebuild will fall on customers. Consolidation, he added, can lower costs over the long term. But the $3,000 charge over five years has “come as a big shock” to many residents, said Morgan Z Whirledge, who “This is an added layer of burden,” he said. “ This comes at a really inopportune time for people in this recovery process.”Mutual water companies are privately owned, mostly nonprofit utility companies. Customers are shareholders of the company, and day-to-day operations and revenue decisions are overseen and voted on by a board that is elected by the shareholders. Each mutual water company has its own set of governing bylaws, and is overseen by the State Water Resources Control Board.Still, Whirledge said he understands the need to keep the company solvent and sees consolidation as a good long term solution. “ I'm hoping that ultimately Altadena is going to be better served in the future, better served with stronger water infrastructure,” Whirledge said.Overall, the fires caused more than $2 billion in damage to infrastructure overseen by L.A. County — excluding the costs of restoring these small water companies, said Anish Saraiya, director of Altadena recovery for Barger’s office. And, he added, the total budget for the county Public Works Department, which serves all of L.A. County, is around $5 billion, “Ultimately their pathway to restoration and recovery is going to be one that's going to require help from both state and federal governments,” Saraiya said.“It is paramount that the county gets that funding,” Saraiya said. “It is going to take that kind of scale of assistance to help us rebuild this community.” In the past, state and federal funding has been essential, though slow, to rebuild water systems after fires. For example, the Northern California town of Paradise was destroyed by the 2018 Camp Fire, but it did not receive As L.A. County waits for funding to come through, officials are looking for other ways to fund infrastructure. The countySuch districts allow the county to dedicate a portion of future property tax revenue to rebuild infrastructure. It also allows the county to take out bonds or loans to finance the rebuild. “ The next step for us is to build out the infrastructure plan and then also pursue the financing side of it to be able to generate revenues, either through bonds or through other creative financing strategies to get us the money we'd need,” Saraiya said, “ because these districts don't generate revenue until development starts to occur and homes are rebuilt.”
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