DOJ Seeks Supreme Court Order to Hold 20,000 Ballots in California

The Department of Justice filed a notice on Monday seeking emergency intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court. The request comes one day before Election Day and asks the court to order California to set aside the ballots of 20,000 people the federal government identifies as likely noncitizens. The department wants these ballots held until citizenship is verified, a process it argues is currently missing in the state’s election administration.

This is the latest step in a conflict between federal officials and California election administrators. Last week, federal judge David Carter, a Clinton appointee, called the department's actions a broad pattern of attempted election interference. A divided panel from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the DOJ’s earlier request to stop processing these specific ballots. The panel included judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez, who agreed that changing rules so close to the vote posed a material risk of disenfranchisement.

Judges Bennett and Sanchez cited the Purcell principle, which discourages altering election rules on the eve of an election. They also pointed to the Constitution, which grants states authority to run their own elections. The National Voter Registration Act further supports the state's position by barring systematic removal of ineligible voters within 90 days of a federal election. Judge Patrick Bumatay, the third member of the panel, dissented from the decision.

The actual number of affected ballots may be lower than the 20,000 figure cited by the DOJ. Los Angeles County election officials noted that many individuals on the federal list did not have active voter registrations and were never mailed ballots. Over the weekend, data scientists at the University of California Los Angeles Voting Rights Project analyzed the list under a court order. Their findings showed that 42% of the names did not appear on California's current voter roll. The analysis also identified naturalized citizens among the flagged individuals.

The Department of Justice has intensified its oversight of California elections in recent weeks. It sent subpoenas to local officials and issued reminders that criminal prosecution is possible if ineligible voters cast ballots. A federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order late Friday. That order bars the Trump administration from threatening or coercing election officials to stop processing ballots from registered voters the federal government claims are ineligible. The government has appealed that restraining order as well.

The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to take up the case. If the court agrees to intervene, it must determine whether to issue a ruling before Tuesday's vote. The DOJ continues to argue that its list is reliable enough to warrant holding the ballots, while California and Los Angeles County maintain that the federal data is unreliable and that sorting ballots during an active election is infeasible.