Judge Blocks DOJ Effort to Segregate 20,000 California Ballots

U.S. District Judge David Carter denied the Department of Justice’s emergency motion to halt the processing of specific ballots in California. The ruling, issued Wednesday evening, blocks the federal government’s attempt to force state and local election officials to set aside votes belonging to 20,000 individuals identified as likely noncitizens.

The Justice Department filed its lawsuit on October 15, arguing that the issue is urgent because mail ballots are currently being processed. Once signatures on returned envelopes are verified, the ballots are separated to protect voter confidentiality. Federal prosecutors contend that if this step is completed, it becomes impossible to retrieve an ineligible ballot. They argue that votes cast by noncitizens dilute the influence of U.S. citizens, a process they say is extremely rare based on past audits.

State and local officials in California disputed the reliability of the federal list. A preliminary analysis by Los Angeles County indicated that many individuals on the DOJ list do not have active voter registrations. State Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, told the court that the litigation serves as a precursor to further federal interference. He warned that the court must avoid what he called a chilling degradation of democratic values.

The dispute over the accuracy of the noncitizen list has intensified. Nicolas Bartell, a senior official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, filed documents stating that his office found none of the sampled individuals were born in the United States. However, he acknowledged that four of them might have a claim to U.S. citizenship. Kassra Oskooi, a political scientist at the University of Delaware serving as an expert witness for voting rights groups, countered in a court declaration that the USCIS matching protocol is likely unreliable.

In his 26-page order, Carter, a Clinton appointee, expressed concern that segregating votes so close to Election Day would create chaos. He noted that the federal government had never before sought to coerce a state to abandon its constitutional election procedures on the eve of an election. Carter wrote that once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred. He stated that if the executive branch can discount votes based on unproven allegations, the democracy is in danger.

The Justice Department is expected to appeal the decision. The matter could eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court. This lawsuit is part of a series of actions taken by the department in various states. Federal prosecutors recently asked Washington state officials to review a list of 400 registered voters they believe are likely noncitizens. In Alaska, the DOJ filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the state from certifying Senate race results if the Republican incumbent loses due to votes for a similar-named spoiler candidate.

Federal prosecutors have charged dozens of people in the last two months for registering or voting without being U.S. citizens. The judge noted that the government can continue to address the issue through these criminal indictments rather than by halting the election process.