Judge Rejects DOJ Bid to Set Aside 20,000 California Ballots From Suspected Noncitizens

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Wednesday rejected the Justice Department’s emergency request to make California set aside the mail ballots of about 20,000 people the government says are likely noncitizens.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, a Clinton appointee, denied a temporary restraining order in a 26-page ruling issued Wednesday evening, NPR reported. More than 3.7 million Californians have already voted, according to the Associated Press.

“Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures,” Carter wrote in his order.

He wrote that the requested relief “would wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway” and would “discount the votes of United States citizens.”

“Once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred,” the judge concluded. “If the Executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger. This Court declines to be a party to such process.”

DOJ Heads Back to the Ninth Circuit

The department quickly filed a notice of appeal. Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, said on X that he would seek an emergency order from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

“Every day, more ballots are processed by election officials. This ongoing emergency disenfranchises American citizens through dilution,” Essayli wrote.

The government argues that time is short. Once signatures are verified, ballots are separated from their envelopes to protect voter privacy, which makes it impossible to pull an ineligible ballot back out.

According to the order, the department hand-delivered a letter and a password-protected thumb drive on Oct. 13 to Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan. The county had already mailed about 5.9 million ballots by then.

County officials were told to review the list within 48 hours to determine whether any U.S. citizens were on it. The Justice Department sued on Oct. 15.

The accuracy of the list remains in dispute. A county review of a small sample found many people who had said in records they were born in the U.S. A U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services official, Nicolas Bartell, countered that none were U.S.-born.

Bartell did acknowledge that four of those people “might have a claim to U.S. citizenship.” Carter wrote that the government’s matching protocol “raises significant concerns” and that he could not find its process credible.

The judge said the government still has a remedy. It can prosecute noncitizens who vote illegally, as it has done. Justice Department officials say they have charged dozens of people in the last two months for registering or voting without citizenship.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the ruling an important victory that builds on Monday’s Ninth Circuit loss for the administration. “But this fight is not over,” he said in a statement.

The appeals court had earlier rejected the government’s bid to skip the district court, Bonta’s office noted. The case could ultimately reach the Supreme Court.

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