Federal Election Dispute: 9th Circuit Blocks DOJ Bid to Set Aside California Ballots

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Justice Department's request on Friday for California to set aside disputed ballots received in the midterm election. The panel issued a 2-1 ruling against the federal government's demand that the state hold specific votes until citizenship is verified. This decision marks another legal setback for the Trump administration's push to assert control over state-run elections before Tuesday's vote.

The administration alleges that California sent ballots to approximately 20,000 individuals who may not be U.S. citizens. The Justice Department wants those ballots segregated and excluded from the count pending verification. California officials argue the list is highly unreliable and likely includes many U.S. citizens. A district court judge previously denied the request and warned that the federal demands could disenfranchise eligible voters.

The majority opinion was authored by Judge Mark J. Bennett, appointed by President Donald Trump, and Judge Gabriel P. Sanchez, appointed by former President Joe Biden. The court wrote that there is no feasible way to identify and segregate the ballots of specific individuals without potentially catastrophic effects on the entire system. The judges noted they discerned no clear error in the district court's findings on this point.

Elections officials state that hundreds of thousands of ballots have already been processed and are completely anonymized. They explain that these processed votes cannot be matched back to the voters who submitted them. Millions of Californians have already cast their ballots in the midterm election. The ruling arrives during a period of intense federal scrutiny of local elections.

The Justice Department has not responded to requests for comment on the ruling. Prosecutors have argued that tallying votes from noncitizens would dilute the voice of citizens. The top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, Bill Essayli, warned that any election official who knowingly processes a noncitizen's ballot is opening themselves to legal jeopardy. The administration has also provided a list of alleged noncitizen voters to officials in Washington state and issued subpoenas in Alaska regarding a spoiler candidate.

A federal judge in Washington ordered the administration to share the disputed list of names with lawyers for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and the UCLA Voting Rights Project earlier on Friday. This is the first time a nongovernment organization will evaluate the merits of the list of 20,000 names. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra advises the UCLA Voting Rights Project. These groups sued the Homeland Security Department in early October to stop it from using federal immigration data to challenge state voter rolls.

A coalition of unions, including the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, joined the legal challenge on Friday. They are asking a federal judge to temporarily block the Justice Department from demanding that local officials stop counting ballots or threatening criminal prosecution. On Thursday, the Associated Press obtained subpoenas issued to Los Angeles County election officials. At least three county officials have been asked to appear before a grand jury on November 4, the day after the election.