A federal judge rejected the Justice Department’s request for a temporary restraining order that would have barred California from counting mail ballots from more than 20,000 alleged noncitizen voters, saying the election “is already underway.”
U.S. District Judge David Carter, in a ruling issued late Wednesday night after a hearing in Los Angeles, said the government’s request “would wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway, create a chilling effect on election workers and voters alike, and discount the votes of United States citizens.”
The Justice Department immediately appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The district court denied our emergency request to sequester ballots from 20,000 suspected noncitizens,” U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli wrote on X. “Every day, more ballots are processed by election officials. This ongoing emergency disenfranchises American citizens through dilution. The Solicitor General authorized an immediate appeal. We filed our Notice of Appeal and will immediately seek an emergency order from the Ninth Circuit.”
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California mails ballots to all 23 million of its registered voters. More than 3.7 million people have already voted in the state, including more than 500,000 ballots already processed this week with the ballot already out of the envelope, according to court filings.
It would be impossible to know which ballot belonged to a particular voter now, according to Los Angeles County officials.
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“Eroded trust in our democracy is irreparable,” Judge Carter, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, wrote. “Once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred. If the Executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger. This Court declines to be a party to such process.”
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Carter said that “states have control over their elections,” but the federal government claims it has evidence the state refuses to accept that there are 20,000 noncitizens registered to vote in the state of California.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted that states are not doing enough to stop noncitizens from voting, which he says is widespread.
Carter said the Justice Department never explained why counting ballots would impair any prosecutions under the law, and California said the DOJ’s assertions relied on “suspect data.”
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“There are no mysterious databases; this was laid out in publicly filed declarations,” Essayli wrote Wednesday night on X. “Voter rolls were compared to USCIS immigration, Social Security, and passport records. We are not changing the rules mid-election, we are enforcing them. It’s unlawful for noncitizens to vote.”
Registered voters can self-declare to be noncitizens to get removed from the voter roll, and do so while they are seeking naturalization or saying they are ineligible for jury duty.
In Washington state, the Justice Department on Monday sent a letter asking officials not to count any ballots received from 400 voters it claims are not citizens. Washington had 5 million registered voters as of 2024, state records show.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.