Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, stated in an interview on August 31, 2026, that California's voter registration process relies entirely on an honor system with no government verification of citizenship. ^[1] Bill Essayli stated on August 31, 2026, that at least 400,000 California voters registered without providing any identifying information, a figure he posted on X. ^[2] Darwin Rivera Flores was arrested on charges of illegally registering to vote, though prosecutors state he never actually cast a ballot. ^[3] Prosecutors allege that Darwin Rivera Flores, a Honduran national, illegally registered to vote in California by checking the box attesting he was a U.S. citizen born in the United States on a voter registration form filed last year. ^[4] Carla St. Romain claimed that DHS identified only 185 illegal registrants out of an estimated 16,000 in Nevada, and that Essayli has touted only one arrest in California out of the purported 190,000. ^[5] Carla St. Romain claimed that in July 2026 the U.S. Department of Homeland Security declared, without presenting proof, that more than 190,000 noncitizens are on California's voter rolls. ^[6] Carla St. Romain, a letter writer from Pasadena, California, claimed that Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for Los Angeles, promised investigations and arrests into California voter fraud after the June 2026 primary, following President Trump's unsubstantiated claim that California's elections are rife with fraud. ^[7] Carla St. Romain cited a Heritage Foundation study finding that noncitizen voting is equivalent to less than 0.000008% of total votes. ^[8]