The administration of Donald Trump has sued California, alleging that noncitizens may be present on the state's voter rolls. To see what is disputed, this correspondent attended the state's citizenship check in operation: a Department of Motor Vehicles counter in Sacramento, one applicant, one box, one signature. Our observation began at position 6 in the walk-in queue. The citizenship-verification count opened the day at zero.
The subject, a local woman of about forty, had signed twice before reaching the counter: once for a courier holding a parcel, once for a pharmacy loyalty program. At the counter she signed a third time, for her license renewal, and a fourth time, for the republic. The republic's signature took 4.1 seconds. The clerk inspected it for 1.5 and found it sufficient; for scale, the branch's stapler has received closer review. No further verification of anything occurred — a sentence this correspondent drafted at minute 9 and never had to revise.
The instrument is a registration form. It asks the applicant to confirm she is a citizen of the United States, which she does by checking a box. Beneath the box, a declaration makes the answer perjury if false; the signature activates the perjury, and the applicant carries it out of the branch like a parcel. At minute 12 the verification count stood at zero. At minute 44 it had not moved. At minute 58 the subject checked the box. The count did not move; a checked box is not verification but enthusiasm, and this correspondent has no unit for enthusiasm. The 61-minute tally: documents requested to prove citizenship, zero; questions from the clerk about citizenship, zero; questions about smiling in the photograph, one.
The branch also keeps a waiting list — a queue for the queue — on which the subject held position 2 while holding position 6 in the room. Asked whether the list kept a list of its own, Dolores Kemp, a licensing technician with eleven years at the counter, said, "Not yet. Give us a year." Kemp then walked this correspondent through the citizenship verification, step by step: "The question is right there on the form. If they check the box, I initial the box. If they skip the box, I ask whether they meant to skip it. Most of them meant to check it. That's the whole procedure, and it works. In eleven years, the box has never lied to me."
The federal lawsuit asks the state to verify more. The state's position, as performed at the counter, is that verification has already occurred — by the applicant, upon the applicant. A man behind me in the queue, who gave his name as Ray, reached the same finding unprompted: "Nobody's checking anybody. That's the system. If somebody lies on a federal form, that's between him and the perjury. The perjury comes with the form. The line can't slow down for conscience."
Our field log closes: signatures collected from one local, four; collected for the republic, one; documents examined in support of it, zero; citizenship determinations, one; parties responsible, one, and it was the applicant. The republic accepted her word at 9:58. The lawsuit asks whether the word is good. The counter declined to comment. The counter had a box.
