A federal appeals court has mandated that California respond by Saturday noon to an emergency request from the Trump administration. This request involves about 20,000 mail-in ballots sent to individuals the Justice Department suspects may be noncitizens ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued this directive late on Friday after the DOJ filed its request earlier in the day, seeking an immediate ruling by Saturday. The Justice Department is seeking emergency relief from the appeals court following U.S. District Judge David Carter’s lack of a timely ruling within the department’s specified deadline.
The DOJ is urging California election officials to isolate ballots from people on its suspect list while confirming their voting eligibility. This is to ensure these ballots are not counted alongside other votes until their validity is determined.
This is an emergency,emphasized the DOJ’s filing, submitted by Attorney General Todd Blanche and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli.
The filing warns that processing without segregating suspected non-eligible voters’ ballots may lead to irreparable voter disenfranchisement and vote dilution among legitimate United States citizens. Despite the Ninth Circuit’s order, Judge Carter is still set to hold a hearing on Tuesday.
Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, highlighted evidence showing that 20,000 individuals received mail-in ballots in October. His office recently sued the state, aiming to prevent counting ballots returned by suspected noncitizens.
We’re not asking California to take any drastic steps other than to sequester ballots from suspected noncitizens, Essayli noted, asserting the number of questionable ballots as at least 20,000.
This week, Essayli publicly challenged California Gov. Gavin Newsom regarding the state’s measures for preventing noncitizen registration in its voter rolls. Essayli criticized California for weak citizenship verification, whereas Newsom defended the state’s election integrity and legality.
California election authorities disagreed with the DOJ’s demands, claiming county offices lack the needed authority and access to federal records for citizenship verification. Furthermore, officials stated that separating relevant ballots is infeasible if they have been processed.
Once a mail-in ballot’s signature is verified, officials noted, the ballot is separated from its identifying envelope and processed with others. As of now, Los Angeles County alone has processed 331,000 ballots.