A federal appeals court panel on Friday denied the Trump administration’s request that it order California officials to set aside about 20,000 mail-in ballots that the administration claimed had been sent to possible noncitizens. In a sharp rebuke, the panel wrote that entertaining the government’s requests would trample California’s authority over its election procedures, and that to rule otherwise would amount to “undermining the Constitution’s plain text.” “If the United States believes different procedures are necessary for vote-by-mail ballots, we believe it should take that suggestion to Congress, not the courts,” the order said. The ruling just days before the midterm elections means that the window is rapidly closing for the Justice Department to win a court order that could force state officials to change how process mail-in ballots.
The administration could now ask the Supreme Court to intervene, though the justices have long held that federal courts should not change balloting rules on the eve of an election. The lawsuit has become part of an escalating, multipronged effort by the Trump administration in recent weeks to argue that elections are marred by votes from noncitizens, who cannot legally participate in federal elections. There are in fact vanishingly few documented instances of noncitizen voting, and California officials have argued that the list of names the Justice Department provided is riddled with errors.
The lawsuit comes as the administration has also been threatening criminal action over its noncitizen voting claims, issuing subpoenas to county election workers in California and charging 28 people with violating federal election laws. The efforts in California mirror others around the country and appear intended to cast doubt on the validity of the vote, as polls show Republicans may lose control of one or both chambers of Congress. Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
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