Has California ever released an audit of non‑citizen voter registrations from VoteCal?
Executive summary
California has not published a statewide, government‑issued audit specifically titled or framed as an “audit of non‑citizen voter registrations” drawn directly from VoteCal; the state publishes routine voter‑registration reports and provides controlled access for independent record reviews, while outside groups have produced their own audits and reports alleging non‑citizen registrations [1] [2] [3]. Reporting and policy summaries show proposals to require citizenship verification and recurring audits, but those are proposals and analyses rather than evidence that the state has released a dedicated VoteCal audit of non‑citizen registrations [4] [5].
1. What California does publish about VoteCal and voter lists
The Secretary of State operates VoteCal as California’s centralized voter registration database and is required by law to produce reports such as the Report of Registration and the Statement of the Vote; those official products break down registered voters into categories but are not described in state materials as a focused audit of non‑citizen registrations [1] [6]. The Secretary of State also provides a controlled “record review” process allowing qualified researchers and organizations to request voter registration information for election, scholarly, journalistic, political, or governmental purposes, which creates a legal avenue for outside audits but is not the same as a published state audit specifically targeting non‑citizen registrations [2].
2. Independent and private “audits” claiming non‑citizen problems
At least one private organization, the Transparency Foundation, released an independent audit alleging widespread problems and cited evidence it described as failures in list maintenance and eligibility verification, including claims about duplicates and out‑of‑state registrants; that report is not a state release but a nongovernmental analysis of VoteCal‑related data and processes [3] [7]. The Transparency Foundation report is public and has been reported in local press; its findings and methodologies have been contested and should be read as an external audit rather than an official, state‑issued audit [3] [7].
3. Historical audits and VoteCal development oversight
State audit history shows scrutiny of VoteCal’s development and implementation—California’s State Auditor documented problems and a failed first attempt to build VoteCal, including cost overruns and governance issues, but that 2013 audit concerned system development and compliance with federal requirements, not a targeted audit of non‑citizen voter registrations drawn from VoteCal [8]. Legislative and policy groups have repeatedly pushed for renewed audits of VoteCal and of California’s compliance with Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requirements; those efforts relate to overall list maintenance and system performance rather than a single released audit of non‑citizens [5].
4. Policy proposals and the push for citizenship verification audits
Recent ballot analyses and legislative hearings have included proposals that would require counties and the Secretary of State to verify citizenship attestations and to report “citizenship‑verified” percentages and even to expand recurring audits of counties and the state, signaling political momentum for citizenship‑focused verification and auditing—but these are proposals and analyses, not evidence that a statewide, state‑published VoteCal audit of non‑citizen registrations already exists [4]. Policy debates on this subject are active and the workload implications for the State Auditor are repeatedly emphasized in official analyses [4].
5. Limitations of available reporting and how to interpret claims
Available official sources establish that VoteCal is the statewide system and that California publishes routine reports and permits record reviews [1] [2] [6], while nongovernmental groups have produced external audits alleging eligibility problems [3] [7]; the materials provided do not show a formal, state‑issued audit released by California that is explicitly an audit of non‑citizen voter registrations from VoteCal, and this response cannot rule out other unpublished or later reports beyond the cited sources [1] [2] [3]. Readers should distinguish between official state reporting (reports, record‑review access, system audits of VoteCal development) and independent audits or advocacy reports that use VoteCal data but are not state releases [1] [8] [3].