A federal judge rejected on Wednesday a Trump administration request to stop California from processing the ballots of up to 20,000 people over allegations they are likely noncitizens, warning it would “wreak havoc” on the midterm elections.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter comes as more than 3.7 million people have already voted in the state. Over 500,000 votes have already been counted.
The Department of Justice appealed the decision Wednesday evening.
The decision is the latest legal setback for President Donald Trump in his efforts to expand federal control over state-run elections ahead of voting that will decide control of Congress for the rest of his term.
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The Republican administration sued election officials in the Democratic state in mid-October, accusing the officials of failing to meet a 48-hour deadline to review a list of 20,000 people it alleged were likely noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls.
The federal government's request, Carter wrote, “would wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway, create a chilling effect on election workers and voters alike, and discount the votes of United States citizens.”
The administration had asked the judge to require the state to wait to count those ballots until the voters’ immigration status could be verified. The federal government also had asked the appeals court for a quick ruling — before a district judge’s scheduled Oct. 27 hearing in the case — but that effort was rejected by the higher court.
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The Justice Department made a similar request in Washington state this week for the state to sequester ballots submitted by hundreds of people it suspects are not U.S. citizens. Meanwhile, another lawsuit filed in Alaska last week seeks to delay certification of the vote if the Republican incumbent running for U.S. Senate doesn’t win. All three states have House or Senate races that will help determine the balance of power in Congress.
Carter's order was a forceful rebuke of the federal government's demand, arguing that segregating ballots at this time in the election would require counties to develop new methods for sorting ballots and “risk disenfranchising an untold number of voters.” In other words, Carter argued, it would have the same effect as purging voters and therefore violates the National Voting Rights Act, which prohibits changes to voter rolls within 90 days of an election.
“Eroded trust in our democracy is irreparable. Once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred," Carter wrote. "If the Executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger. This Court declines to be a party to such process.”
Carter also rejected the Justice Department's argument that California was impeding the federal government's ability to enforce the law. He argued that prosecutors already demonstrated the ability to enforce election law when they arrested 28 noncitizens who had voted or registered to vote illegally.
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Federal prosecutors did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment on Wednesday evening.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who argued on behalf of the federal government on Tuesday, has previously said that the federal government’s request wouldn’t impede the election. Instead, he argued that the Justice Department was trying to “safeguard the elections.”
“Segregating a ballot does not prevent it from being counted later,” he said. “It is designed to preserve the status quo and prevent the infection of our election with illegal ballots.”
