Nobody nowhere

Los Angeles election officials admitted in a federal court filing on Tuesday that they have no independent way to verify whether someone is a U.S. citizen when they register to vote. They simply take the applicant’s word for it. This fact alone should shut down voting in federal elections in California, since the same problem exists statewide. The declaration by Los Angeles, filed in the Central District of California in response to the Justice Department’s lawsuit, states that the Registrar is not equipped or authorized to check citizenship beyond the voter’s own attestation and has no access to federal records that would allow it. Under federal law, only citizens can vote in federal elections. Yet California has not acted on a list of roughly 20,000 suspected noncitizens or agreed to set aside their ballots. This is not a technical glitch. It’s the direct result of a system that treats citizenship as an honor-system claim rather than a fact that must be proven. When officials cannot check the most basic requirement for voting, the election cannot be trusted. The Justice Department has already flagged these issues and is in court over them. California’s response has been to defend the current rules instead of fixing them. That choice protects a process that allows ineligible people to participate while diluting the votes of citizens. American citizens in California deserve elections where only eligible voters cast ballots. Taking someone’s word for citizenship does not meet that standard. The admission in court by Los Angeles makes the problem impossible to ignore.