Non-Citizen Voters and UOCAVA Voters Are Major Areas of Concern in California

Guest post

California – Infiltration of Non-Citizens in the Voter Rolls

All eyes are currently on the recent court challenges requiring California to suspend the counting of 20K high propensity non-citizens in the November elections.  This initial number may be the floor rather than the ceiling, which could extend into the millions.

The “lady doth protest too much” attitude from the California Secretary of State and past refusals to look at the data expose the structural failures of California to follow the law and maintain clean voter rolls,

Understanding how the system has been designed to fail starts with automatic voter registrations at the DMV.  California implemented this in April of 2018. It became one of the first states to do so, and the voter registrations quickly ballooned by 1.4 million.  The Secretary of State at that time, Alex Padilla, posted this press release on November 6, 2019.

SACRAMENTO, CA – California Secretary of State Alex Padilla released the latest statewide report of voter registration, showing that 80.65 percent of eligible Californians are registered to vote—the highest percentage since June 1952. As of October 1, 2019 there were 20,328,636 Californians registered as of this report.

This report also showed percentages of changes to political party registrations:

  • Democratic  +0.96%
  • Republicans  -4.04%
  • No Party Preference  +2.74%
  • American Independent  +0.13%
  • Green  -0.13%
  • Libertarian +0.16%
  • Peace and Freedom  0.0%
  • Unknown/Other  +0.21%

As of September 4, 2026, the total number of California registered voters stands at 23,164,977, representing 85.25% of all eligible voters. In a state that has been losing residents to other states at an astonishing rate.  This is worthy of examination.

In 2023, Tracy La, Executive Director of Viet Rise, a Tides Foundation-funded entity, advocated for 6,000 undocumented Asian non-citizens to be allowed to vote in Orange County, California.

That same year, the Migration Policy Institute put Orange County’s total figure of undocumented immigrants at 211,000.

A later analysis in 2025 estimated that the number had grown to 491,000.  This is only one of the 58 counties in the state.

REMINDER: Elections in California’s Orange County Should Never Have Been Certified in 2024

In 2023, the state’s undocumented population was estimated between 2.3 and 2.9 million.  The federal investigation naming 20,000 non-citizens on the rolls is just the beginning, showing infiltration of non-citizens in California’s rolls.

The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA ) is another pathway for risk.

In California, an applicant can register online by attesting to U.S. citizenship, which includes an applicant who resides outside the US indefinitely and one who has never lived in the United States. Ballots are then delivered by email, mail, fax, or other means.  No independent citizenship verification step is required.  Here is who qualifies:

  • A U.S. citizen and resident of California.
  • OR
  • A U.S. citizen and a member of the Uniformed Services or Merchant Marine on active duty outside my county.
  • A U.S. citizen and an eligible spouse or dependent of a member of the Uniformed Services or Merchant Marine on active duty outside my county.
  • A U.S. citizen and an activated National Guard member on State orders outside my county.
  • A U.S. citizen residing outside the U.S. temporarily.
  • A U.S. citizen residing outside the U.S. indefinitely.
  • A U.S. citizen and have never resided in the U.S

Federal cybersecurity authorities have identified UOCAVA as a high-risk process from a cybersecurity and foreign interference standpoint. California’s statutory and administrative framework relies on precisely the verification and return methods federal agencies have flagged as the weakest.  They simultaneously fail to report the complete disposition data for ballots cast through the UOCAVA framework.

In the 2024 general election, 73,499 ballots were sent to 180 countries.  Of these, out-of-country registrations, only 5.09% registered as Republicans.  Many new registrations failed to state where they were born or stated they were foreign-born. An additional 35,761 ballots were sent out of the State. Over 38% of the live ballots sent out had no provenance as they were never returned.  No chain of custody or records exist to show if they were received by the intended person or stolen by a foreign adversary. This exposes an easy path for non-citizens to subvert the votes of real citizens.

Since 2020 the number of civilians have increased 5 times compared to military service members for which UOCAVA was enacted to serve. The lack of verification to confirm citizenship questions the eligibility of all UOCAVA registrations and deserves a full examination.

Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act, 52 U.S.C. 20507, requires states to conduct a reasonable, uniform, and non-discriminatory program to maintain accurate voter lists.  The current California standards and failure to conduct investigations are clearly a cause for concern. Willful dilution of the votes of lawful citizens erodes public confidence and is a punishable offense.

These system failures in California may soon be declared too broken to justify a legally certifiable election.

The post No Verification, No Chain of Custody: The Gaps in California’s Voter Rolls and UOCAVA Ballots appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.