Federal Voter Fraud Bust in California Belies Blue State Narrative

More than two dozen people were arrested in California in a federal voter fraud bust. The arrests came just days after the Department of Justice delivered Golden State election officials a list of more than 20,000 potential noncitizens who may be illegally registered to vote – a list which said officials immediately challenged, but refused to actually check and verify.

Fake Citizens and Voter Fraud

Monday morning, October 19, the DOJ announced the arrest of 11 in California for illegally registering to vote despite not being citizens. In total, the sting – called “Operation Protect the Vote” – saw the arrest and charging of 28 green card holders for allegedly lying on voter registration or naturalization forms.

One example cited by the New York Post was 72-year-old Belizean national Alexander Muñoz, who allegedly fraudulently claimed to be a citizen in 2019 to register to vote, then subsequently voted in the 2020, 2022, and 2024 US elections. Another was José Probitsado Amaro, 51, a citizen of the Philippines who allegedly also registered to vote by falsely claiming to be a US citizen.

It’s unclear as of yet if all of the arrested actually voted. In fact, as everyone is legally innocent until proven guilty, it has not yet been proven that any of the 28 are noncitizens or that they committed any crime. What is known, however, is that all 28 were on the list of more than 20,000 that the federal government sent over to California officials last week and are now suing over in federal court.

The Ever-Moving Goalposts and the ‘Not Widespread’ Narrative

After news broke of the bust, California Attorney General Rob Bonta shot back, arguing that the handful of alleged noncitizen voters are “a drop in the bucket” compared to the state’s tens of millions of voters. “Voter fraud is illegal, voter fraud is wrong,” he declared at a press conference in San Francisco, then said that the number of people arrested proves just how rare it is. “Every count, recount, hand count, case audit shows that,” he continued.

“It’s .0001% of all the registered voters, and it makes the point there is no widespread voter fraud and that there is, at times, isolated one-off examples of voter fraud,” Bonta added.

As Liberty Nation News reported last week, the DOJ has sued the state of California and its election officials in federal court after the Golden State administration refused to comply with the 48-hour ultimatum delivered on Tuesday, October 13. Bonta’s argument goes that this arrest of little more than two dozen people proves just how rare voter fraud really is. It does not. What it proves is that 28 of the 20,000 or more people on the DOJ and DHS list were likely actually noncitizens who illegally registered to vote or otherwise lied on their forms.

It proves that it happens – not that it happens infrequently. “The announcement by the DOJ today makes the point that there is no widespread voter fraud, but when there are isolated incidents… those individuals should be held accountable,” Bonta argued. First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli, however, was correct in his response posted to X.

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“No, this isn’t the total number of noncitizen voters in California,” he wrote. “Police can’t catch every speeder, but that doesn’t mean speeding isn’t widespread. 28 is what we could charge in a week.” Bonta won’t say it directly – likely because saying it clearly shows just how ridiculous an idea it is – but he strongly implies that 28 people were caught because only 28 people were committing the crime.

So, what happens if, in a week or a month, further investigation turns up yet more names on the 20,000-plus list sent to California and results in more arrests? Well, as recent history demonstrates, those in charge will simply move the goalpost yet again and declare that 35, 87, 123, or 2,457 – or whatever total number the DOJ ends up charging – simply proves that it’s not widespread. By Bonta’s metric, comparing them to the total number of voters in the state makes it quite plain: Even if all 20,000 were guilty, that would be “a drop in the bucket” compared to tens of millions.

For that matter, the just over 190,000 the DHS suggested might be noncitizen registered voters in California back in July would meet that same definition and “prove” no widespread voter fraud. You see, widespread is quite the relative term. Let’s apply that same logic and formula to another issue, shall we? According to the CDC, there were 20,162 homicides nationwide in 2022 – and 15,364 of them were committed with firearms. But there were about 334.02 million people in the US – and an estimated 393 million privately own firearms, the vast majority of which didn’t take a human life for any reason.

So, just a drop in the bucket? Who would argue, regardless of political affiliation, that murder isn’t worth preventing? And what West Coast Democrat would willingly drop their arguments for “commonsense” gun control in the name of not violating the rights of the vast majority of other Americans over just a drop in the bucket? By Bonta’s math, you see, there is no widespread gun violence in the US.

What makes the Golden State Democrat narrative even more suspect is that the DOJ hasn’t asked for these 20,000-plus people to be stripped of the right to vote, necessarily. It only asked that the state of California set aside their ballots to be counted later and verify their citizenship and eligibility to vote. If they’re legit, the votes get counted. If not, they are tossed, and the people guilty of voter fraud are charged. Simple as that.

So why don’t California Democrats even want to check?