A federal judge has rejected the Trump administration’s request to set aside up to 20,000 mail-in ballots in California over allegations that the voters may be non-citizens, warning that the move would “wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway”.US District Judge David O Carter issued the ruling on Wednesday, rejecting the Justice Department’s demand that California delay counting the ballots until the citizenship status of the voters could be verified. The decision came as more than 3.7 million people had already voted in the state, according to court proceedings cited in Associated Press (AP) reports.“Eroded trust in our democracy is irreparable. Once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred,” Carter wrote in his order.“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,” he added.
Why did the court reject the request?
The Republican administration sued California election officials in mid-October, alleging that they had failed to meet a 48-hour deadline to review a list of 20,000 people whom federal authorities suspected of being non-citizens on the voter rolls.According to CNN, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had claimed in July that 190,000 registered California voters could be ineligible because they were foreign nationals. The government subsequently provided election officials with a list of 20,000 purported “high confidence” matches on a password-protected thumb drive and gave the state 48 hours to act.However, local election officials found during their initial review that many names were either absent from voter rolls or listed as suspended, meaning those individuals would not receive mail-in ballots. Officials also found indications that some people identified as likely non-citizens were born in the United States, CNN reported. DHS officials disputed aspects of this assessment in court declarations.Carter said segregating ballots at this stage would force counties to develop new procedures and risk disenfranchising voters. He also held that the request could violate the National Voter Registration Act, which restricts certain changes to voter registration within 90 days of an election.California mails ballots to all 23 million registered voters. Court filings show more than 500,000 ballots had already been processed, with envelopes verified and ballots removed, making it virtually impossible to trace individual ballots, Los Angeles County officials testified.The US justice department said it would immediately appeal the ruling. First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli defended the administration’s position in a social media post.“Every day, more ballots are processed by election officials,” Essayli wrote. “This ongoing emergency disenfranchises American citizens through dilution.”He had previously argued that segregating ballots would preserve the status quo rather than prevent votes from being counted later.The legal dispute comes amid wider federal efforts to scrutinise voter eligibility ahead of the midterm elections, including similar litigation in Washington state.
