Judge Blocks Federal Move to Split California Mail Ballots

U.S. District Judge David Carter denied the Trump administration’s request to force California election officials to physically separate mail ballots from approximately 20,000 voters the federal government alleges are not citizens. The decision landed on Wednesday, less than one week before the November 3 midterm elections that will decide control of both houses of Congress.

In a 26-page opinion, Carter argued that the government's intervention conflicted with constitutional principles granting states primary authority over their election processes. He warned that approving the request would create a precedent allowing either political party to disrupt elections for strategic purposes. Such a move, he noted, could potentially strip more than 20,000 registered Californians of their voting rights.

During Tuesday's hearing, Carter questioned the timing of the federal push. He asked prosecutors why they could not pursue cases against suspected noncitizens after the election was complete. Carter pointed out that returned ballot envelopes contain identifying information that would support later prosecutions. He described the proposed manual separation of ballots during the active voting period as a major alteration of standard election procedures.

The Justice Department filed the suit earlier this month against California, Secretary of State Shirley Weber, and Los Angeles County election official Dean Logan. Before suing, federal officials gave state leaders 48 hours to review a list of suspected noncitizens. The administration sought to prevent those ballots from counting until citizenship was confirmed. California officials challenged both the deadline and the accuracy of the list provided. The state has more than 23 million registered voters.

The administration also sought temporary intervention from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday. That court issued a 2-1 ruling on Monday, stating that Carter had not been given enough time to consider the request for emergency relief. Carter, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, then issued his final decision on Wednesday.

Federal lawyers argued that counting ballots cast by noncitizens could dilute the power of citizens' votes. They said the move would also undermine congressional efforts to safeguard elections. Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, stressed the need for public confidence in the results. He clarified that the administration was not seeking to cancel ballots, only to verify them. Both federal and California law bar noncitizens from voting.

California officials labeled the lawsuit politically motivated and intended to shake confidence in the state's results. Deputy Attorney General Anne Bellows warned that the requested order would disrupt election operations and risk disenfranchising lawful voters. State lawyers also questioned whether the government relied on outdated registration data. The administration responded that it supplements voter data through a third-party service.

Los Angeles County lawyers stated that manually checking ballot envelopes against the federal list could not be completed by the end of the election period. Only slightly more than 7,000 of the listed records had addresses in the county. A county review of 200 records found that more than half involved canceled or inactive registrations for which no ballot was mailed. County officials also reported that just over 38% of the sample who listed a birthplace identified the United States.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services disputed those birthplace findings. Agency official Nicolas Bartell said its review of immigration records showed none of the 200 people were born in the United States. He separately acknowledged that an ongoing analysis had identified roughly 189 records with minor discrepancies on the larger list sent to California.

California began mailing ballots in early October. More than 3.5 million mail ballots have been returned statewide. Los Angeles County has processed over 550,000 of those. The dispute is part of the administration's effort to expand federal control over elections. Trump has repeatedly alleged that Democratic-led states have noncitizens on their voter rolls, although noncitizen voting is rare.