U.S. District Judge David O. Carter on Wednesday denied the Justice Department’s emergency request to require California to sequester mail-in ballots tied to more than 20,000 registered voters whose citizenship the Trump administration questioned. Carter ruled that the request came too late and would disrupt an election already underway.
Justice Department officials identified the voters as “likely aliens” after Homeland Security Investigations and federal partners used multiple data-enrichment and verification methods to flag possible noncitizens on California’s voter rolls. California officials disputed the list. They said a preliminary review found U.S.-born individuals and voters with no voting history among those flagged.
California election officials also said compliance would be nearly impossible because county election offices had already processed more than 500,000 ballots. Those ballots had been separated from identifying information, making it difficult to connect particular votes to particular voters. Carter wrote that the requested intervention would “wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway,” while saying federal authorities could still pursue individual voting-fraud cases.
First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli said the Justice Department filed a notice of appeal and would seek emergency relief from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He said the district court denied the emergency request and called the matter an “ongoing emergency” that “disenfranchises American citizens through dilution.”
The case puts two election-integrity concerns in direct tension: accurate voter rolls and orderly election administration once ballots are being cast. For the country, the dispute shows why states need reliable systems before Election Day to prevent ineligible registrations, protect lawful voters, and avoid last-minute fights that courts may be unwilling to unwind after voting has begun.
