About 42% of names on the federal government's list of alleged noncitizen voters in California don't match anyone on the state's voter rolls, two UCLA analysts found.

The finding was reported by the Associated Press based on a legal filing made Saturday, Oct. 31. California's election is Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Two members of UCLA's Voting Rights Project analyzed the 20,930 names the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) demanded California election officials treat as possible illegal voters. Their research found 8,880 names do not correspond to anyone in the state's current voter file. At least 22 people on the list are confirmed U.S. citizens, and many more may be, the AP reported.

It is the first outside analysis of the list.

The analysts also found that applying the government's own methodology, nearly 7,500 naturalized citizens in California were "highly likely" to be incorrectly flagged as ineligible to vote. The filing was made by the Los Angeles-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA). Xavier Becerra, the Democratic candidate for California governor and an adviser to the UCLA Voting Rights Project, cosigned it.

Administration pushes back

Bill Essayli, who runs the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles, posted on X that the analysis was "bogus," calling CHIRLA an "activist illegal immigrant rights group," the AP reported.

DOJ spokesperson Kiersten V. Pels wrote in an email to the AP that the department would not apologize for protecting citizens' votes, arguing that ballots cast by ineligible voters cancel out legitimate ones.

The researchers noted that the administration apparently removed voter identification numbers from the names it sent to election officials. That omission made it harder for officials to determine whether flagged individuals were already on their rolls or were duplicates. The analysts described the voter ID number as the most crucial data point, the AP reported.

The DOJ has warned California election officials they could face criminal liability if they let noncitizens vote and has issued subpoenas of election offices. As we reported Oct. 30, the department subpoenaed LA County election staff days before the vote.

A federal judge in California on Oct. 30 ordered the DOJ to stop sending demands to state officials. The Trump administration appealed that ruling on Oct. 31. Multiple judges have rejected the administration's demand to separate ballots from people on the list, calling it unconstitutional, the AP reported.

CHIRLA and the UCLA Voting Rights Project sued the Department of Homeland Security in early October to prevent it from using federal immigration data to challenge state voter rolls. A federal judge on Oct. 30 ordered the administration to share the list with the plaintiffs, making the broader analysis possible.

The case argued that the government's data-matching methods risk disenfranchising citizens or deterring them from voting, and that the lists could disproportionately target naturalized citizens legally entitled to vote.

Election officials have said the administration confronted them with the list at the last minute, with no time to conduct the investigation required by law before removing someone from the rolls. The Trump administration's appeal of the Oct. 30 order is pending.