A federal judge on Wednesday denied the Department of Justice’s bid to force California to set aside mail ballots associated with more than 20,000 suspected noncitizens, rejecting an emergency intervention less than a week before the midterm elections.
U.S. District Judge David Carter, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, rejected the department’s request to require election officials to hold the flagged voters’ ballots until their citizenship could be verified. His decision leaves California’s existing ballot-processing procedures in place ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
“California and its people are sovereign, too,” Carter wrote, warning that the administration’s proposed intervention threatened state authority over elections.
Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, has said the department plans to return to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and could ultimately seek Supreme Court intervention. The DOJ did not return a request for comment.
The ruling marks another setback for the Trump administration after a divided appeals court on Monday dismissed its initial emergency appeal. That decision turned on procedural grounds: Carter had not yet ruled, and the panel found prosecutors had not given him adequate time to consider their request.
The dispute centers on a federal list identifying more than 20,000 people as likely noncitizens registered to vote in California. The DOJ argues that counting their ballots before verifying citizenship could dilute lawful votes and make improperly cast ballots impossible to identify once separated from their envelopes.
The department maintains it seeks verification before tabulation, rather than automatic cancellation of the ballots.
California and Los Angeles County dispute the list’s reliability and argue that the federal government lacks authority to impose the requested changes. County officials have also warned that manually identifying and separating ballot envelopes would disrupt election operations already underway.
Both federal and California law prohibit noncitizen voting. The litigation concerns whether the DOJ can compel the state to adopt its proposed safeguards and whether the government’s evidence justifies emergency relief.
Carter’s ruling at times chastised the administration’s proposed relief requests. He said the administration’s relief would “wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway, create a chilling effect on election workers and voters alike, and discount the votes of United States citizens.”
During Tuesday’s hearing, Carter pressed Essayli on why prosecutors could not pursue criminal charges against people who vote illegally rather than risk disenfranchising eligible voters.
“You’ve got a remedy, for goodness’ sake,” Carter told Essayli. “Go out and indict.” Essayli maintained that the DOJ sought only to separate the flagged ballots pending citizenship checks, arguing that even a handful of unlawful votes could affect an election’s outcome.
The earlier appellate ruling also exposed divisions over the DOJ’s position. U.S. Circuit Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez formed the majority dismissing the appeal, while U.S. Circuit Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented and supported relief for the administration.
APPEALS COURT REJECTS DOJ’S EXPEDITED BID TO SET ASIDE 20,000 CALIFORNIA MAIL BALLOTS
Bumatay argued that federal restrictions on noncitizen voting override conflicting state procedures. Bennett separately questioned the DOJ’s legal authority and warned that its proposed remedy could disrupt voting.
Carter’s denial resolves the emergency request, leaving the underlying lawsuit pending.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
