Judge Refuses to Halt Counting of California Ballots From Voters Flagged by Justice Department

A US judge on Wednesday turned down a Justice Department request to temporarily stop California from counting mail ballots, for the November 3 midterm elections, that come from people on a list of more than 20,000 registered voters. The Trump administration alleges those voters are likely noncitizens.

The ruling is another setback for President Donald Trump's push to widen the federal government's role in elections, as his Republican Party fights to hold onto both houses of Congress.

US District Judge David Carter issued the decision after a Tuesday hearing in Los Angeles federal court. The Justice Department had sought a temporary restraining order that would prevent officials from counting any ballots from the people it flagged. It filed the lawsuit on October 15, a rare federal intervention in the voting process so close to an election.

California has argued that its safeguards against noncitizen voting are robust. The state said the department's claims relied on "suspect data" and that meeting its demands could disenfranchise eligible voters.

The hearing followed a Monday decision by a federal appeals court, which rejected an unusual emergency request from the Justice Department to block California from counting the ballots before Carter could rule. The department did not say how many of the more than 20,000 flagged people had actually submitted a mail ballot.

California is the most populous US state and a Democratic stronghold, with 52 seats in the House of Representatives, more than any other state. Trump has made it a focal point of his immigration crackdown since returning to the White House, accusing it of harming public safety through "sanctuary state" policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. State records show California had 23 million registered voters as of December 2025.

Trump has repeatedly said states are not doing enough to stop voting by noncitizens, which he describes as widespread. Multiple studies and state audits have found it to be rare.

The administration has also moved to intervene in two other states with competitive races. In Alaska, the Justice Department asked a judge last week to block certification of election results if the Republican incumbent senator loses by a narrow margin. It alleges that another candidate with a similar name on the ballot could confuse voters. Alaska wants the case dismissed, saying it has taken steps to distinguish the two candidates.

In Washington state, the department sent a letter on Monday asking officials not to count ballots from 400 voters it said may not be citizens. Washington's top elections official said the timing suggested the request was meant to cast unfounded suspicion on the results. The state had 5 million registered voters as of 2024.

Voting rights activists have warned that the federal government's methods for checking state voter lists for noncitizens risk wrongly flagging naturalized citizens for removal from the rolls.