LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday rejected the Justice Department’s request for California to set aside disputed ballots received in the midterm election, and hours later another federal judge barred the department from intimidating election workers involved in processing those ballots.
The rulings Friday mark the latest setbacks for the Trump administration’s efforts to assert control over state-run elections.
The administration has alleged California sent ballots to some 20,000 people who may not be U.S. citizens. It wants the state to set those ballots aside and not count them until citizenship can be verified. California officials say the list is highly unreliable and most likely includes many people who are U.S. citizens.
A district court judge forcefully denied that request on Wednesday and warned that the Justice Department’s demands could disenfranchise citizens.
“As the district court found — and we discern no clear error — there is no feasible way to identify and segregate the ballots of specific individuals without potentially catastrophic effects on the entire system,” the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel wrote in its 2-1 ruling.
The majority opinion was authored by Judge Mark J. Bennett, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, and Judge Gabriel P. Sanchez, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden.
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the rulings. But in a statement about the sweeping efforts to root out noncitizen voting, it said: “Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting. Enforcing that law is not an agenda item. It is the Department’s job.”
Millions of people have already voted in California in the midterm election that concludes Tuesday. Hundreds of thousands of ballots have already been processed. Elections officials have said that processed votes can’t be matched back to the voters who submitted them.
Elsewhere, the Trump administration issued a raft of subpoenas in Alaska in a spoiler-candidate controversy. The Justice Department has also provided a list of alleged noncitizen voters to officials in Washington state.
Lawyers for the Justice Department have previously said they will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In his dissent, Judge Patrick J. Bumatay argued that California’s unwillingness to separate the ballots encourages the “violation of federal law.”
“California says it can do nothing to prevent illegal voting,” Bumatay, who was appointed by Trump, wrote. “That undermines the federal government’s interest in promoting election integrity and preventing the dilution of lawful votes.”
Another Judge Bars Intimidation Of Election Workers
Later Friday, a federal judge in California barred the Justice Department from…
Read More: Appeals Court Rejects Justice Department Request For California To Set
