Suit saying state registers non-citizens dropped for strategic reason

Republican activists have dropped, for strategic reasons, a suit against Secretary of State Alex Padilla alleging California was permitting non-citizens to register to vote.

But plaintiffs' attorney Harmeet K. Dhillon said she would likely file a new complaint.

The lawsuit claimed Padilla's office was in violation of the National Voter Registration Act and the plaintiffs' "legitimate vote is being diluted by the illegal votes of non-citizens." It demanded Padilla's office begin receiving citizenship information from the Department of Motor Vehicles to ensure non-citizens had not been registered, and to undertake a review of voter rolls in order "to ensure that all registrants are eligible." Hoge v. Padilla, 2:19-cv-01985-MCE-AC (E.D. Cal., filed Oct. 1, 2019).

"I believe 100% the secretary of state is not in compliance with various provisions of the National Voter Registration Act," said the founder of Dhillon Law Group Inc. in San Francisco. "We fully intend to continue pursuing these violations in court."

Deputy Attorney General Anna T. Ferrari filed a motion to dismiss the case Dec. 16, claiming the plaintiffs' lacked standing because they could "allege no concrete and particularized injury" and provided "no statutory notice" of an actual violation.

Ferrari also claimed the plaintiffs' lacked "cognizable legal theory" for some of their claims and demanding proof of citizenship from voter registrants would itself violate the National Voter Registration Act.

Dhillon said any complaint filed would be written with an emphasis on proving standing.

Plaintiffs Roxanne Hoge and Ali Mazarei ran unsuccessfully for the California Assembly in 2018; Mazarei is also running this year. Plaintiff Corrin Rankin founded a political action committee with the goal of recruiting more African-Americans to join the Republican Party.

-- Malcolm Maclachlan