INS Turns 3,000 Names Over to Congress

WASHINGTON — The Immigration and Naturalization Service has completed a record-by-record comparison of more than 3,000 names of possible noncitizens against Orange County’s registered voters during last November’s election in the 46th Congressional District.

However, the report--rushed to Capitol Hill late Tuesday to meet a congressional committee’s deadline--does not definitively conclude how many noncitizens actually voted in the contest that resulted in the election of Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) by a 984-vote margin, according to sources familiar with the review.

The House Oversight Committee ordered the study as part of its investigation into claims by former Rep. Robert K. Dornan that he lost the election to Sanchez because ballots were cast by noncitizens thus ineligible to vote.

Initially, the INS came up with 19,023 names of possible noncitizens in the agency’s computers that “matched” names on countywide voter registration rolls.

Because the hand search of each name on file is time-consuming and labor-intensive, the INS began hand-checking 4,023 possible “matches” in Sanchez’s congressional district.

Under its agreement with the committee, the INS turned over work sheets of checks completed through last Friday, totaling more than 3,000 names.

Neither Republicans, who control the committee’s work, nor Democrats planned to publicly comment on the INS’ partial report, signaling the intense political gamesmanship surrounding the election. As the field of possible matches narrows, the pressure increases on the committee to determine whether the Dornan case is valid, both sides acknowledged.

A “match” is defined by the INS as an Orange County registered voter who had the same name and birth date as a person in INS computers with no date of naturalization, or a naturalization date that was recorded after the voter registration date.

In this last round of checks, the INS planned to write up a work sheet for each match. If the INS computer showed no naturalization date but the person’s file contained a citizenship certificate, the information was updated on the work sheets submitted to the committee on Tuesday.

As the INS continues its review, it is up to the Republican-controlled committee to study the results and determine how many names should be considered illegal voters.

The federal agency has warned, however, that some of the names could be “false matches” and will require further field investigation before anyone can conclude they were illegal voters.

Democrats also argue that some names might be duplicates, some might actually be records of people who live outside the district or even outside California, and some who match the voter registration list might not even have voted.

“You don’t really know for sure [who illegally voted] until you knock on somebody’s door,” said Roger Ballentine, the attorney for the Democratic side of the House committee.

Republicans representing Dornan were unavailable for comment.