Justice Department Requests Supreme Court Halt to California Ballot Processing
The agency seeks to pause counting for 20,000 voters it deems likely noncitizens, a move lower courts have rejected as risky on the eve of the vote.
By Allison Rojas ·
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a notice on Monday asking the Supreme Court to intervene in a dispute with California over voter rolls. The request comes one day before Election Day. The Justice Department wants the high court to order California to set aside and stop processing ballots for 20,000 people. The agency identifies these individuals as likely noncitizens whose citizenship has not been verified.
This appeal marks the latest move in a conflict between federal officials and state election administrators. A federal judge in San Francisco called the agency's actions a broad, ongoing pattern of attempted election interference last week. Judge David Carter, a Clinton appointee, reached that conclusion after a divided Ninth Circuit panel rejected the Justice Department's earlier emergency request.
The Ninth Circuit panel ruled on Friday that granting the federal government's request posed a material risk of disenfranchisement. Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez wrote that creating a new system to segregate ballots while voting is underway is infeasible. They cited the Purcell principle, which advises against changing election rules right before an election. The opinion also noted that the Constitution grants states authority to manage elections and that the National Voter Registration Act bars systematic voter removal within 90 days of a federal election.
Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented from the panel's decision. The Justice Department argues that its list is reliable and that the ballots should not be counted until citizenship is confirmed. Courts have previously sided with California and Los Angeles County, finding the federal list unreliable and the proposed ballot segregation system impractical.
The actual number of affected ballots is likely lower than the 20,000 figure cited by the Justice Department. County election officials found that many people on the list did not have active registrations and were not mailed ballots. Data scientists at the University of California Los Angeles Voting Rights Project analyzed the list through a court order over the weekend. They found that 42% of the names do not appear on California's current voter roll. The analysis also identified naturalized citizens on the federal list.
The Justice Department has escalated its feud with California officials in recent weeks. The agency sent subpoenas to election officials and reminded them of potential criminal prosecution for allowing ineligible voters to cast ballots. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order late Friday. That order bars the Trump administration from threatening or coercing election officials to stop processing ballots. The federal government has appealed that order as well.
