LOS ANGELES – The ongoing legal battle over voter eligibility in California has taken a significant turn as the Trump administration seeks a swift ruling from a federal appeals court regarding noncitizen voting in the state. This development surfaces after a lower court decisively rejected the administration’s request to prevent the counting of ballots from approximately 20,000 individuals alleged to be noncitizens.
In a filing late Wednesday, the Justice Department urged the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to act quickly, citing the “irreversible ballot processing” currently underway in California. Early voting has been active for weeks, with millions of ballots already cast.
This appeal follows a stern ruling from U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who criticized the Justice Department’s last-minute maneuver to segregate ballots during an ongoing election period. The department claims that certain ballots were sent to individuals registered to vote, despite their noncitizen status, but Judge Carter’s decision marks yet another legal hurdle for President Trump as he aims to extend federal control over state elections, particularly during the critical midterm elections.
Trump expressed his dissatisfaction with the ruling, labeling California’s election system as “extremely corrupt” and asserting that there are “hundreds of thousands” of questionable ballots in the state—claims he later inflated to “millions.” These assertions, however, lack substantiated evidence and have been met with skepticism.
Judge Carter, a Bill Clinton appointee, articulated that the Justice Department’s requests violate the National Voting Rights Act, which prohibits alterations to voter rolls or election procedures within a 90-day window leading up to an election. He also highlighted concerns regarding the accuracy of the department’s list of supposed noncitizens, noting that it included many U.S. citizens, thus risking disenfranchisement.
California has already processed over 500,000 votes in Los Angeles County alone, and the election system is designed to maintain voter privacy, ensuring that once a vote is cast, it cannot be traced back to the individual voter. Judge Carter is expected to rule on the federal government’s renewed request for a preliminary injunction, which would halt the counting of ballots until the legal issues are resolved.
While the Justice Department argues that it is vital to prevent any fraudulent voting before it occurs, county election officials dispute the notion that delaying the tallying of ballots for citizenship verification would not disenfranchise voters. This appeal marks the second instance the 9th Circuit will address this case, following a previous ruling that deemed it premature for the appeals court to intervene before a lower court’s decision.
The previous panel of judges expressed skepticism about the federal government’s claims and indicated that they would not support efforts to invalidate ballots at this advanced stage of the electoral process, given the risk of disenfranchising legitimate voters. One dissenting judge, however, maintained that federal law mandates the exclusion of noncitizens from voting and that California must ensure the integrity of its election by vetting ballots accordingly.
As the situation continues to evolve, it remains uncertain whether the case will be reviewed by a new panel of judges or the same trio that previously examined the matter. The implications of this legal battle extend beyond California, echoing broader national debates surrounding voter eligibility and election integrity.
