Central Alameda News

The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is suing the Alameda County Registrar of Voters in federal court over allegations that it did not disclose the voting records of foreign nationals, which is in violation of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).

The lawsuit, filed on Sept. 7, 2023 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that PILF requested all voting records related to foreign nationals, like the number of people whose registration was canceled due to unmet citizenship requirements. Requested records included voter registration applications, voting history, and all related correspondence between the registrar and foreign nationals. 

PILF notified Alameda County in October that they were in violation of the NVRA when the registrar denied having access to the voter registration database, the lawsuit states. "The County responded to the violation by assuring PILF they would provide a determination if any records would be available for disclosure by January 19, 2024," according to a press release by PILF. "The Alameda County Registrar of Voters has been silent since their missed deadline."  

“For more than four months, we have been trying to obtain records about foreign nationals getting on the voter roll,” PILF President J. Christian Adams said in a statement. “Alameda County’s lack of transparency is concerning as we enter a presidential election year. The public has a right to inspect election records, including these important records that reveal mistakes and errors by election officials.”

PILF is a public interest law firm dedicated to election integrity. Over the past nine years, it has held numerous sanctuary cities accountable by obtaining registrars' non-citizen "voter cancellation reports." PILF has won federal cases in Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Michigan that uphold the "constitutional framework" of elections and "protect the right to vote."  

Read the lawsuit here.