Judge rejects Justice Department bid to set aside California ballots as Washington state disputes its own list

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Wednesday rejected a Trump administration request to stop California from processing ballots belonging to as many as 20,000 people the government says are probably not U.S. citizens¹. The same day, Washington state’s top election official told the Justice Department that a similar list for his state is too flawed to act on². The disputes come days before the Nov. 3 election.

The California ruling

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter said the government’s request would “wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway”¹. He also said, “Once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred”¹. Carter reasoned that setting the ballots aside would amount to purging voters, which he said conflicts with a federal law’s 90-day restriction on voter-roll changes before an election¹.

The Justice Department sued in mid-October after, it said, state officials missed a 48-hour deadline to review the list¹. Court filings showed that more than 3.7 million people had already voted in California, and more than 500,000 ballots had been processed that week¹. Los Angeles County officials testified that separating the ballots would make it nearly impossible to tie them back to specific voters¹. Carter also noted that prosecutors have already arrested 28 noncitizens accused of illegal voting or registration¹.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said the situation “disenfranchises American citizens through dilution”¹. The department said it would appeal immediately; the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had previously denied a first appeal¹. David Becker, of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said the ruling confirmed that “states, not the federal government, run elections”¹.

Washington’s objections

In Washington, federal prosecutors Neil Floyd and Pete Serrano wrote to Secretary of State Steve Hobbs on Monday, asking him to set aside ballots from 400 people the government calls noncitizens until their citizenship is verified². The letter gave him 48 hours and warned that otherwise “the United States will have no choice but to seek emergency relief”². As of Thursday afternoon, no lawsuit had been filed².

Hobbs replied Wednesday that “many of the persons on your list are United States citizens,” and said those his office had found might be “the ‘tip of the iceberg’”². His preliminary review found that a significant number of people on the list are not currently registered or have inactive registrations². He said the list arrived as a PDF of a printed spreadsheet, without voter ID numbers or addresses, contained duplicates, and gave no information on how it was assembled; he described it as “created in a rushed manner”². He also argued that withholding ballots without individualized proof of ineligibility would be unlawful². The prosecutors have said many of those listed are green-card holders, who are not citizens and cannot vote in federal elections².

More than 1.3 million mail ballots had been returned in Washington as of Wednesday². Judge Carter’s order described the California list as stemming from “a procedure rife with uncertainty and errors,” CBS News reported². AP noted that a separate lawsuit in Alaska seeks to delay certification of results if the Republican Senate incumbent there loses¹.