A federal court has denied the Justice Department’s request to isolate more than 20,000 ballots it says were sent to likely noncitizens in California. The ruling comes just days before Election Day, with a district judge saying the request would “wreak havoc and disrupt the election” and create a “chilling effect on election workers and voters alike.”
“Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional election procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch,” Judge David O. Carter said in the Oct. 28 ruling.
The Justice Department filed an appeal the same day the ruling was issued, according to a court filing attached
to a statement from First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli.
“Every day, more ballots are processed by election officials,” Essayli said. “This ongoing emergency disenfranchises American citizens through dilution.”
The appeal goes to the same federal appeals court that rejected a previous DOJ request to order California election officials to set aside these ballots and verify citizenship. The court rejected the bid because the federal government hadn’t given the district court a chance to decide — a move California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office described as an attempt to bypass normal court processes.
Alleged noncitizen votes spur sharp criticism
According to court filings, the federal government flagged to the California Secretary of State earlier this year that numerous “likely noncitizens were registered to vote in California” before vote-by-mail ballots were sent out.
However, the whirlwind legal clash between California election administrators and the federal government began earlier in October—when early voting was already underway. The federal government asked the court to order California to set aside vote-by-mail ballots from likely noncitizens until their citizenship status could be determined, arguing the move would protect American voters' rights and the integrity of U.S. elections, according to court filings.
But scrutiny quickly came for the federal government.
Shirley Weber, California's Secretary of State, previously said in a statement that she will not disenfranchise thousands of Californians based on an “unsupported” and “likely inaccurate” belief that certain voters are likely noncitizens and pointed out that voting is underway.
“Despite this, and with less than three weeks before the election, you are demanding unprecedented measures that threaten thousands of Californians’ right to vote, based on unverifiable information or methodology that you still fail to explain or provide,” Weber said.
Los Angeles County elections officials said isolating these ballots could disrupt vote counting and make it "virtually impossible" to certify California's midterm election results in time.
California Sen. Alex Padilla and New York Rep. Joseph Morelle questioned why the DOJ took legal action weeks before the election if it had assembled the data months earlier.
Carter, the district judge, said in the ruling that people who’ve met the Golden State’s voter registration laws must not be deprived of their rights due to “unfounded allegations stemming from a procedure rife with uncertainty and errors.”
The federal government’s request “violates longstanding constitutional principles mandating that states have control over their elections,” according to Carter.
Paris Barraza is a reporter covering Los Angeles and Southern California for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at pbarraza@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Wreak havoc.' Court sides with California in noncitizen ballot clash
