A federal judge ruled Wednesday that California may continue processing ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters suspected by the Trump administration of being noncitizens, rejecting an emergency Justice Department request just days before the November 3 midterm elections.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter denied the administration’s request to segregate the ballots until election officials could verify the voters’ citizenship, arguing that federal intervention could disrupt the election and potentially disenfranchise eligible voters.
The Justice Department filed suit October 15 after federal investigators identified more than 20,000 individuals believed likely to be noncitizens on California’s voter rolls. Federal officials said their findings resulted from cross-referencing voter registration records with immigration and other government databases.
California officials challenged the reliability of those findings, arguing that the federal government’s list contained errors and that removing or isolating ballots so close to Election Day could violate federal election laws.
The Justice Department maintains that allowing ballots from ineligible voters to be counted threatens election integrity and dilutes the votes of American citizens.
“California election officials were given an opportunity to remove noncitizens from their voter rolls and to sequester ballots returned from suspected ineligible voters. They refused,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said when the lawsuit was filed.
Carter, however, questioned the government’s verification methods and warned that imposing new ballot-processing requirements during an ongoing election could create widespread confusion.
The ruling does not establish that the 20,000 individuals are citizens or noncitizens, nor does it determine whether they have cast ballots illegally.
The Justice Department said it intends to appeal the decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, setting up another potential legal confrontation over election integrity before voters head to the polls.
The dispute comes amid a broader federal effort to identify suspected noncitizen voters, with the Trump administration issuing subpoenas for voter records across multiple states ahead of the congressional elections.
