A federal appeals court has blocked the Trump administration's attempt to prevent California from counting mail ballots for thousands of suspected noncitizens. The 9th Circuit ruled that the fedderal government's request would cause unnecessary confusion during the midterm election period.
The 9th Circuit's refusal to disrupt California's election process
The San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals issued its ruling on Monday, marking a significant legal setback for the Trump administration's efforts to oversee state elections. In the majority opinion, the court argued that the federal government was attempting to dictate matters to a state legislature that fall squarely within California's traditional domain. According to the report by Reuters, the decision was joined by Circuit Judge Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, and Circuit Judge Gabriel Sanchez, a Biden appointee.
While Circuit Judge Patrick Bumatay, also a Trump appointee, dissented, the majority emphasized the need to avoid upending state policies right before the November 3 midterm elections. The court's stance highlights the tension between federal oversight and state-level authority in managing voter rolls and ballot processing.
A pattern of 26 losses in DOJ's fight against state voter rolls
This litigation is part of a wider trend of the Justice Department challenging state-level eelction management. The Department of Justice has filed lawsuits against 30 states and Washington, D.C., seeking access to complete voter rolls and sensitive personal data. However, as reported by Reuters, the federal government has lost 26 of those cases without a single victory.
The Trump administration's focus on California is particularly pointed given the state's status as a Democratic stronghold with 52 seats in the House of Representatives. President Trump has frequently criticized California's "sanctuary state" policies, claiming they undermine public safety and facilitate voter fraud. This legal push represents a rare and aggressive intervention by the Justice Department just weeks before a major election cycle.
The gap between 28 criminal charges and 20,000 alleged noncitizens
The Justice Department's claim that 20,000 people on a specific list are likely noncitizens stands in stark contrast to the number of actual criminal prosecutions. While the administration's lawsuit targets a massive group,officials noted on October 19 that only 28 of those individuals have been criminally charged with illegal voting.. This discrepancy has led critics to question the scale of the alleged problem.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber's legal team has characterized the litigation as a "reckless political stunt" that relies on "suspect data." This skepticism is bolstered by a July Reuters investigation, which found that noncitizen voting is exceedingly rare, identifying only 129 cases where noncitizens were federally charged with illegal voting. Many of those instances were attributed to administrative errors rather than intentional fraud.
The missing count of how many of the 20,000 flagged voters actually cast mail ballots
Despite the scale of the lawsuit, a critical piece of information remains unverified : how many of the 20,000 flagged individuals actually submitted a mail ballot.. The Justice Department's lawsuit, filed on October 15 in a Los Angeles federal court, requested that California separate these ballots and withhold them from the count until citizenship could be verified, but the report indicates the administration did not specify the number of ballots actually in play.
Voting rights activists have also raised concerns regarding the potential for error in these scrutiny methods. There is an ongoing fear that aggressive attempts to identify noncitizens could lead to the wrongful removal of naturalized U.S. citizens from the voter rolls, potentially disenfranchising legitimate voters in the lead-up to the midterms.
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