A federal judge on Wednesday rejected a Trump administration request to force California election officials to separate approximately 20,000 mail ballots cast by individuals the government alleges are noncitizens. U.S. District Judge David Carter ruled that California may continue processing these ballots according to its standard procedures, stating that the federal request violated constitutional principles giving states control over their own elections.
The ruling follows a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department earlier in October after California officials did not meet a 48-hour federal deadline to review a list of suspected noncitizen voters. The administration argued that failing to sequester these ballots would dilute the votes of U.S. citizens. California and Los Angeles County officials opposed the motion, describing the list as unreliable and noting that over 3.5 million mail ballots had already been returned statewide.
In his 26-page decision, Judge Carter wrote that granting the request would "wreak havoc" and "risk disenfranchising an untold number of voters" during an active election. He noted that once a ballot is processed and removed from its envelope, it becomes virtually impossible to identify which ballot belongs to a specific voter. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli stated that the government would appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
For the individual voter on the government’s list, the ruling means their ballot will be processed and tabulated alongside all other votes rather than being held in a separate category. A person whose eligibility was questioned by the Justice Department will not see their vote sidelined during the initial count. Conversely, those concerned about the integrity of the voter rolls will not see these specific ballots separated before they are commingled with the general pool of votes.
The decision reinforces a legal precedent regarding the National Voting Rights Act, which prohibits major changes to voter rolls within 90 days of an election. It also highlights the technical limitations of mail-in systems, where privacy protections make it difficult to retract a ballot once it is separated from its identifying envelope. What happens next is an appeal by the Justice Department to the 9th Circuit, which previously declined to intervene before the district court had issued its ruling. A final determination must be reached before the midterm results are certified.