Federal judges block Justice Department push to set aside California ballots
A 9th Circuit panel and a district judge issued orders on Friday to preserve voting procedures in the final hours before the midterm election.
By Isaac Medina ·
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected a request from the Justice Department to force California to isolate specific ballots during the midterm election. The ruling arrived on Friday, providing immediate relief to state election officials who are processing votes in the final days before the Tuesday deadline. The decision halts the federal effort to pause the count for approximately 20,000 voters whose citizenship status is under scrutiny.
The 9th Circuit panel issued a 2-1 decision authored by Judge Mark J. Bennett. He noted that there is no feasible method to identify and segregate ballots for specific individuals without causing catastrophic effects on the entire system. Judge Gabriel P. Sanchez joined the majority opinion. The court found no clear error in the district court's earlier denial of the federal request, which had sought to hold ballots until citizenship could be verified.
Hours after the appeals court ruling, U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson in the Northern District of California issued a separate emergency order. This order barred the Justice Department from threatening or coercing election workers to stop processing ballots. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by labor unions on Friday. Thompson stated that given the proximity to Election Day, the court saw no reason to delay its ruling on the matter.
The Justice Department maintains that federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting. A department spokesperson stated that enforcing this law is the agency's job rather than an agenda item. Kiersten V. Pels, a department spokesperson, wrote in an email that every ballot cast by an ineligible voter cancels out the vote of an American citizen. The department argues it is protecting lawful votes by demanding the separation of disputed ballots.
California officials contend the federal list of 20,000 names is unreliable. They argue the list likely includes many people who are U.S. citizens. The state has warned that the department's demands could disenfranchise eligible voters. Millions of Californians have already voted in the election, and hundreds of thousands of ballots have been processed. Elections officials say these processed votes cannot be matched back to the voters who submitted them.
Judge Patrick J. Bumatay dissented in the 9th Circuit ruling. He argued that California's unwillingness to separate the ballots encourages the violation of federal law. Bumatay wrote that the state's position undermines the federal government's interest in promoting election integrity and preventing the dilution of lawful votes. The Justice Department has indicated its lawyers will appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a third ruling on Friday, a federal judge ordered the administration to share the disputed name list with lawyers from the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and the UCLA Voting Rights Project. This will be the first time a nongovernment organization can evaluate the merits of the list. The federal government appealed that decision the same evening. Xavier Becerra, the Democratic candidate for California governor, serves as an adviser to the UCLA Voting Rights Project.
A separate 9th Circuit panel ruled on Friday that federal investigations into illegal voting by noncitizens will remain on hold in nine states until after Election Day. The judges, all nominated by Democratic presidents, found that aggressive public investigations led some citizens to decide not to engage in election-related activities. The investigations, which look into alleged illegal voting in past elections, can resume after the midterms conclude.
