Judge Blocks Push To Segregate 20,000 California Ballots Before Election Day

U.S. District Judge David Carter denied the Trump administration's request on Wednesday to carve out roughly 20,000 California mail ballots for separate handling, a decision landing five days before the Nov. 3 midtests that decide control of the House and Senate. In a 26-page opinion, Carter wrote that the requested intervention clashed with constitutional principles reserving election administration to the states.

Carter also wrote that granting the order could let either party disrupt elections for political ends and strip more than 20,000 registered Californians of voting rights. At Tuesday's hearing, he asked why prosecutors could not pursue cases after Election Day against people they believe voted illegally rather than risk throwing out lawful votes. He noted that returned envelope markings carry identifying information usable in a prosecution and called shifting ballot handling during voting a major change to procedures.

The Justice Department sued California, Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County election official Dean Logan earlier in October. The department gave local officials 48 hours to review a list of suspected noncitizens and sought to hold those ballots uncounted until citizenship was confirmed. California challenged both the deadline and the list's accuracy. The state carries more than 23 million registered voters.

The administration also petitioned the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 23. A 2-1 panel ruled on Oct. 26 that Carter had not had enough opportunity to weigh temporary relief, clearing the way for his Wednesday decision. Carter was appointed by former President Bill Clinton.

Justice Department lawyers argued that counting ballots cast by noncitizens would dilute citizens' votes and weaken congressional work to safeguard elections. Bill Essayli, the chief federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, said the administration was not seeking to cancel ballots and stressed public confidence in elections. Federal and California law both bar noncitizens from voting.

California officials called the suit politically motivated and aimed at shaking confidence in state results. Deputy Attorney General Anne Bellows said the proposed order would disrupt election operations and risk disenfranchising voters. State lawyers also asked whether the government leaned on stale registration data; the administration said it supplements voter rolls through a third-party service.

Los Angeles County lawyers said matching envelopes against the government list by hand could not finish within the election period. Slightly over 7,000 records on the list carried county addresses. A county review of 200 records found more than half tied to canceled or inactive registrations with no ballot mailed, and just over 38% of that sample listed a U.S. birthplace. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services official Nicolas Bartell said the agency's review of immigration records showed none of those 200 were born in the United States, and he acknowledged an ongoing analysis had found roughly 189 records with minor discrepancies on the larger list sent to California.

California began mailing ballots in early October. More than 3.5 million have come back statewide, and Los Angeles County has processed over 550,000.