California's top election official decided Thursday that more than 700 Los Angeles County residents--who registered to vote but said they are not U.S. citizens--should be excluded from the voter rolls for the upcoming presidential election.
After questions were raised by The Times, Secretary of State Bill Jones directed voter registrars in the state's 58 counties not to put noncitizens on the voter rolls after they filled out voter registration forms under the state's new "motor voter" law.
Jones said "it flies in the face of common sense" to allow individuals to vote who indicated on the form they are not American citizens.
"This is the correct decision," he said. "I may or may not be supported" legally.
Earlier in the day, Jones had said he had no choice but to follow legal advice and have the counties place noncitizens on the voter rolls if they said they were eligible by signing their voter registration form under penalty of perjury.
The motor voter law, intended to increase voter registration, allows citizens to register to vote when they seek or renew driver's licenses at DMV offices. The registration form is attached to the driver's license application, however, and the problem came up when officials discovered that the forms were being given to noncitizens too. People who are in this country legally can get a driver's license.
In Los Angeles County, 727 people completed the voter registration forms at DMV offices but indicated that they were not citizens. But those same people also signed the form, which pledges under penalty of perjury that they are a U.S. citizen at least 18 years old and thus eligible to vote.
Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Conny McCormack said the decision is "a triumph of reason and common sense over a dubious legal interpretation."
The registrar-recorder's office first raised concerns about the problem in August 1995.
McCormack has been struggling with the secretary of state over whether to place the individuals involved on the voter rolls for the November election.
Concerned about the prospect that noncitizens could wind up voting in Los Angeles County, McCormack sought legal advice from the secretary of state and county counsel about what to do with the 727 cases.
She was advised that those signing the form under penalty of perjury saying they met the qualifications to register must be allowed to vote. Not satisfied with the legal advice, McCormack decided to send letters to the registrants seeking to confirm their citizenship status.
