Judge Rejects DOJ Request to Halt Counting of Over 20,000 California Mail Ballots

U.S. District Judge David Carter in Los Angeles federal court denied the Justice Department’s request for a temporary restraining order that would have barred California from counting mail ballots submitted by over 20,000 registered voters the department says are likely noncitizens. The decision, issued on Wednesday, follows a hearing on Tuesday and represents a setback for the Trump administration’s effort to increase federal involvement in the upcoming November 3 midterm elections.

Carter, a Clinton-appointed judge, wrote that the Justice Department’s late-stage request violated “longstanding constitutional principles mandating that states have control over their elections.” He warned that granting the request would “wreak havoc” and could cause thousands of registered voters to lose a right that “generations of Americans have fought to preserve.”

The Justice Department appealed the ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In a statement, Justice Department lawyer Bill Essayli said, “Every day, more ballots are processed by election officials. This ongoing emergency disenfranchises American citizens through dilution.”

California officials argued that the state’s safeguards against noncitizen voting are strong and that the department’s data are “suspect,” warning that compliance could disenfranchise eligible voters. The state, a Democratic stronghold with the nation’s largest electorate, has not disclosed how many of the flagged individuals actually submitted mail ballots.

The judge’s ruling came two days after a federal appeals court rejected an emergency request from the Justice Department to block California’s ballot counting before Carter could rule. The department had argued that counting the ballots would impede federal prosecutions under a law prohibiting noncitizens from voting in federal elections, but Carter noted the department offered no explanation of how ballot counting would affect such prosecutions.

The Justice Department has also filed election-related challenges in Alaska and Washington state, seeking to influence outcomes in competitive races. Voting-rights groups have expressed concern that the federal government’s methods for identifying noncitizen voters risk mistakenly targeting naturalized citizens.