INS Check Flags 500,000 O.C. Voters

WASHINGTON —  A computer check of Orange County’s 1.3 million voters against a nationwide INS database showed Wednesday that more than 500,000 people with similar names were not citizens at the time of the November election, but officials said the data was inconclusive and did not advance Robert K. Dornan’s claims of voter fraud.

The computer run, demanded by a congressional committee, matched the last names and birth dates of Orange County voters against those of 45 million people whose files are contained in INS computers. Most of the 45 million people have at some point applied for U.S. citizenship.

The INS placed little confidence in the 504,572 matches.

“The data on these tapes do not represent the number of illegal voters or registrants in Orange County,” INS Commissioner Doris Meissner wrote in a letter to Congress. “Nor should it be inferred that any particular named individual on this tape has voted or registered to vote illegally.”

The only way to determine how many noncitizens voted, INS officials said, would be to check each of the matches by hand--a procedure that could take months. Meissner asked the congressional committee to narrow its search, possibly to the 46th Congressional District, which has about 173,000 registered voters.

The House Oversight Committee demanded the information as part of its investigation into claims by Dornan, who lost by 984 votes to Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) in November, that he lost because of voting by noncitizens and illegal immigrants. So far, about 303 cases have been substantiated by the California secretary of state.

Last week, the committee sent subpoenas to the INS demanding that it check Orange County’s voters against several of its computer databases. The records produced Wednesday were the results of matches with names on its main database. The INS also turned over a copy of that database to Congress.

The INS maintains several other computer databases, and Meissner said Wednesday the agency was trying to match the Orange County voter role against those too.

Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield), the committee chairman, lauded the agency’s compliance but said the results released Wednesday were just the beginning. He vowed that the committee would determine how many noncitizens voted in the Dornan-Sanchez race and who actually won that race. He promised to change federal election laws, if necessary.

The INS had previously offered to verify the citizenship of 46th District voters, but the Republican-dominated committee rejected the offer. Thomas said he might ultimately be willing to scale back his request, but that he wanted to start by checking the entire county. He said he wanted to see if there was a wider conspiracy to register noncitizens, and to determine whether federal election laws needed fixing.

Thomas said his staff would protect the privacy of the people named in the search. For the matches, the INS provided last names, dates of birth, gender, and the number INS uses to track each individual.

Steve Jost, Sanchez’s chief of staff, said the voluminous results of the INS check proved the futility of the effort. He said the congressional committee was casting doubt on thousands of voters who did nothing wrong.

Cecilia Munoz, vice president of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino rights group, said the subpoenas represented an attempt by Republicans to intimidate mainly minority voters.

“The people on this list are only guilty of having the same name as a person who is not a U.S. citizen,” Munoz said. “This is a Bob Dornan-inspired witch hunt targeting Latino and Asian voters.”

Also on Wednesday, Thomas’ panel agreed to quash several subpoenas sent by Dornan as part of his effort to overturn Sanchez’s victory. The committee said the subpoenas, which included demands for Sanchez’s utility bills and records from local labor and communication unions, were not relevant to his investigation.

The committee also struck down Dornan subpoenas to the INS and the U.S. District Court in California.

The committee voted to modify several Dornan subpoenas. They scaled back some, and in others they asked Dornan to provide more information before they would decide whether the demand was relevant.

Dornan has subpoenaed several groups and individuals as part of his effort to overturn Sanchez’s victory. One of those was Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, the Santa Ana Latino rights organization that is the target of a criminal investigation for allegedly registering to vote noncitizens. Dornan has demanded numerous records from Hermandad, but the organization has refused to comply.

Dornan’s attorneys on Wednesday asked the U.S. attorney to prosecute Hermandad for failing to comply with the subpoenas. Hermandad attorney Mark Rosen could not be reached for comment.

Times political writer Peter M. Warren contributed to this report.

* COUNTERCHARGES

Sanchez’s team claims Dornan’s falsified subpoenas. B4