Ins Asked To Verify Voters In Dornan Race

The congressional committee refereeing the voter fraud dispute between former Congressman Robert K. Dornan and Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., asked the Immigration and Naturalization Service Friday to verify the citizenship of all of Orange County’s 1.3 million voters.

Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, asked INS Commissioner Doris Meissner to check the entire county voter roll against its citizenship records.

Thomas asked the INS to provide his committee with a list of voters who were “noncitizens at the time they registered to vote.”

An INS spokesman said Friday the agency would consider the request.

The request is central to the effort by Dornan to nullify Sanchez’s 984-vote victory last November. Dornan blamed his loss on what he described as widespread voting by noncitizens. The INS is already considering a request by California Secretary of State Bill Jones to check the citizenship of all the county’s voters.