Federal judge blocks DOJ attempt to halt California mail ballot count
U. S. District Judge David O. Carter on 29 October denied the Justice Department’s request for a temporary restraining order that would have halted the counting of more than 20,000 California mail-in ballots alleged to be cast by non-citizens. The ruling follows a series of legal challenges by the Trump administration. Earlier in October, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.
S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the department’s emergency appeal to suspend the ballots and sent the case back to the district court. California Attorney General Rob Bonta had condemned the DOJ directive as politicized, while First Assistant U. S. Attorney Bill Essayli warned that non-citizen voting was likely and urged the Ninth Circuit to set aside the disputed ballots. Butte County clerk-recorder Keaton Denlay also said the DOJ’s list of alleged non-citizen voters contained numerous errors.