Ninth Circuit Blocks Order to Disqualify 20,000 Noncitizen Ballots
Federal appeals court denies DOJ request to set aside mail ballots linked to potential noncitizens in California.
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A federal appeals court has refused to order California to set aside approximately 20,000 mail ballots tied to voters flagged by the Trump administration as potential noncitizens. In a 2-1 decision issued Monday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Justice Department’s emergency request to remove those ballots from the count while their eligibility is under review. The majority opinion stated that the government’s urgency was partly of its own making.
Legal Battle Over Ballot Eligibility
The dispute began on October 15 when the DOJ sued California over a list of over 20,000 registered voters flagged as likely noncitizens. Prosecutors sought to have the state verify each name or keep those ballots separate from the general count. California refused, disputing both the data and the short deadline.
Federal prosecutor Bill Essayli claimed that California made a stunning admission at a hearing the day before. According to Essayli, California told the court it does not independently check the citizenship of its voters, and that any ballot already cast by a noncitizen would be counted if the judges did not intervene. He argued that illegal votes dilute legal ones.
Government’s Methodology and Legal Challenges
The government outlined how it built the list, starting with California’s voter rolls and cross-referencing names with commercial data, immigration records, and Social Security files. The three-judge panel was not convinced, with one Trump-appointed judge stating that the order sought by the government ran against the law California had passed.
The panel also questioned the DOJ on why it should act before the district court had ruled. The case is part of a broader Justice Department push ahead of the November 3 election, with prosecutors recently charging 28 green card holders in California with illegally registering or voting, and arresting 11 of them.
State and Federal Dispute Over Election Integrity
California’s Democrat attorney general argued that the federal theory would overturn the Constitution by letting Washington dictate how states run their elections. Los Angeles County claimed a sample of the federal list included people who reported being born in the U.S., while a DHS official stated that USCIS records showed none of the sampled names were U.S.-born.
The case has returned to the district court, where a judge heard arguments Tuesday and has not yet ruled. The dispute highlights the ongoing tension between state autonomy and federal oversight in election integrity matters.
Source: Breitbart
