Federal judge blocks DOJ from pressuring election officials over disputed ballots

A federal judge issued an order on Friday preventing the Justice Department from threatening or coercing election workers to stop processing ballots. The ruling also bars the department from demanding that local officials separate or withhold ballots the government claims may have been cast by ineligible voters.

The decision follows a Ninth Circuit panel’s 2-1 ruling that rejected the department’s request for California to set aside disputed ballots from the recent midterm election. The administration had alleged that about 20,000 ballots were submitted by individuals who might not be U.S. citizens and sought to have the state hold those votes pending citizenship verification. California officials described the list as unreliable and likely to include many citizens.

"As the district court found – and we discern no clear error – there is no feasible way to identify and segregate the ballots of specific individuals without potentially catastrophic effects on the entire system," the appellate panel wrote.

The majority opinion was authored by Judge Mark J. Bennett, appointed by Donald Trump, and Judge Gabriel P. Sanchez, appointed by former President Joe Biden. A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but a statement on the agency’s broader effort to prevent non-citizen voting said, "Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting. Enforcing that law is not an agenda item. It is the Department’s job."

California election officials noted that millions have already voted in the midterm, with hundreds of thousands of ballots processed, and that processed votes cannot be matched back to individual voters. Los Angeles federal prosecutor Bill Essayli warned that any official who knowingly processes a non-citizen ballot could face legal consequences.