Appeals court rejects DOJ bid to segregate disputed California ballots

A federal appeals court on Friday rejected the Justice Department’s request to require California to set aside ballots from about 20,000 registered voters whom the Trump administration alleges may not be U.S. citizens.

In a 2-1 ruling, Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the department had not justified an injunction while its appeal proceeds. They cited the risk of disenfranchising eligible voters and disrupting California’s ballot-counting system. Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented.

California officials dispute the reliability of the federal government’s list, saying it likely includes U.S. citizens. Election officials have also said that ballots already processed are anonymized and cannot be linked to individual voters. The Justice Department argues that potentially unlawful votes would dilute the votes of citizens.

The ruling followed U.S. District Judge David Carter’s rejection on Wednesday of the department’s request for a temporary restraining order. Carter said the proposed intervention, sought after voting had begun and shortly before the November 3 midterm elections, conflicted with states’ authority to administer elections and could cause eligible voters to lose their rights.

The Justice Department appealed Carter’s decision immediately. Its lawsuit, filed October 15, seeks to prevent the disputed ballots from being counted until officials verify the voters’ citizenship. Millions of Californians have already voted, and hundreds of thousands of ballots have been processed.