OC Registrar Bob Page Caught In ‘Party Over County’ Crosshairs

A trio of conservative California attorneys who have emerged as leaders under U.S. President Donald Trump’s reign have sued Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page.

The federal lawsuit, filed on June 25 in the the federal Central District of California by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), seeks declaratory and injunctive relief.

Page has been the county’s registrar since 2022 and previously worked as a journalist. He allegedly refused to provide the DOJ with records pertaining to the removal of non-citizens from its voter registration list and failed to maintain an accurate voter list.

“Removal of non-citizens from the state’s voter rolls is critical to ensuring that the State’s voter rolls are accurate and that elections in California are conducted without fraudulent voting,” DOJ Civil Rights Division assistant attorney general Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a June 25 press release. “The Department of Justice will hold jurisdictions that refuse to comply with federal voting laws accountable.”

Dhillon is former vice chair of the California Republican Party and is representing the nation against Page along with former Huntington Beach city attorney Michael Gates turned DOJ deputy assistant attorney general and former Republican California State Assemblyman Bilal Essayli.

Party Over Country, Party Over County

“In this political climate, it’s been party over country and in this case, it’s now party over county,” Los Angeles civil litigation attorney Shant Karnikian said.

Essayli previously worked as an attorney in Newport Beach and was appointed chief federal prosecutor of the Central District of California by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Bondi is the second woman to serve in the position after being appointed by President Trump.

“I think the lawsuit is politically motivated and it’s something that the Republican party can rally around,” Karnikian said in a phone interview with OrangeCountyLawyers.com. “It’ll be a talking point whether they win or lose.”

Page declined to comment but wrote in a June 16 letter to the DOJ that more than 176,000 inactive voters who were sent a National Voter Registration Act Section 8(d) notice prior to the 2022 General Election were cancelled following the 2024 Presidential General Election.

“In addition to complying with a state legal mandate to update a registration record within five business days of notification from the voter or an official government source, we also access third-party data to identify possible voter address and status changes that can be further researched to maintain accurate voter registration records,” Page said.

The complaint alleges violations of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and comes at a time when there is heightened attention on immigration, election integrity and voter registration practices.

“Litigating this issue in midterm election years ensures that it’ll get national attention and potentially fuel a narrative about transparency and voter fraud and immigration,” Karnikian told OrangeCountyLawyers.com.

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The NVRA requires that only eligible registrants be registered to vote in federal elections, and also requires the removal of non-eligible registrants from voter rolls. HAVA requires specific information from registrants prior to registering them to vote in federal elections.

“The court will have to weigh in ultimately on whether or not federal law preempts California’s privacy law,” Karnikian added. “There’s a question of state’s rights versus the Supremacy Clause.”

The Supremacy Clause, written into the U.S. Constitution, establishes that federal and constitutional law trump state law. Under California law, non-citizens are not eligible to vote in either federal or state elections.

The lawsuit stems from a complaint to the Attorney General from the family member of an Orange County non-citizen who reportedly received an unsolicited mail-in ballot from the Registrar’s Office despite not being an American citizen.

The plaintiffs accuse Page of wrongfully delivering redacted records that omitted California driver’s license numbers, identification card numbers, social security numbers, voter identification information, language preference, and images of registrants’ signatures.

But Orange County supervising deputy James D. P. Steinmann wrote in a letter responding to the DOJ that the Registrar’s office redacted the records out of respect for privacy.

“The unprotected disclosure of driver’s license or identity card numbers, social security numbers, or signature images may expose registrants to a greater threat of identity theft and the disclosure of registrants’ foreign language preferences could expose them to discrimination or harassment,” Steinmann said on June 20.

*Huntington Beach Photo Credit Pixabay
*Photo Credit of Shant Karnikian Kabateck LLP