O.C. rejects voter data request

County leaders refuse a federal demand for registration records, citing privacy and law.

- By HANNAH FRY

BALLOTS are processed into machine-readable format in Santa Ana in 2022.

Orange County leaders are vowing to fight the Trump administration over the release of sensitive voter data to the Department of Justice after the agency sued for the information in June.

The fight marks a test for county leaders, who have been divided over whether to resist demands by the U.S. Justice Department for records related to alleged voting irregularities, an issue Trump has championed since losing the 2020 election.

Republican Supervisors Don Wagner and Janet Nguyen on Tuesday sought support from the rest of the board to comply with the federal government’s request to turn over voter registration records of 17 individuals who were ineligible to cast a ballot but had appeared on the county’s voter registration rolls.

Instead, a majority of the board voted against the request, with several noting they preferred to let a judge decide whether the information should ultimately be released.

The vote, county lawyers said, wouldn't be enough to force the county registrar to turn over any information anyway since the county isn’t named in the lawsuit. But experts say the move signals a willingness in this onetime conservative stronghold to push back against the Trump administration’s attempts to expand federal power and seek sensitive information on individuals.

“It’s a little bit of posturing of whether or not there is allegiance to the Trump administration [by] obeying in advance,” said Jodi Balma, a political science professor at Fullerton College. “The reality is, nobody’s dying on the hill of 17 voter registrations.”