A federal appeals court has rejected the Trump administration’s latest attempt to stop California election officials from processing more than 20,000 ballots flagged by the Justice Department over suspected noncitizen voters.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the DOJ’s emergency request, keeping the disputed mail-in ballots in play after a Los Angeles federal judge rejected the administration’s initial effort to have them set aside earlier this week.
The decision delivered another setback to President Trump’s escalating challenge to California’s voter rolls just days before Election Day.
“Because Congress has not exercised the specific power granted to it under the Elections Clause to override California’s established laws for challenging ballots or removing ineligible voters, the State Legislature’s statutory scheme remains the only method to do so,” the appellate court said.
US District Judge David O. Carter, a Bill Clinton appointee, criticized the DOJ’s lawsuit when he denied its request for a restraining order Wednesday. He said election officials had until Dec. 3 — the deadline for certifying election results — to resolve the matter, indicating that an emergency injunction was unnecessary.
Carter wrote that the Trump administration’s effort to sequester the ballots amounted to “a broad, ongoing pattern of ‘attempted election interference.’”
The DOJ disagreed and immediately appealed, arguing that the issue required urgent action.
“Every minute that goes by, American citizen votes are being diluted in the state of California,” First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said at a news conference last week. “It’s an emergency, and we expect the courts to treat it as such.”
California Democrats welcomed Friday’s ruling and renewed their criticism of President Trump.
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“Trump and his administration just lost for the third time this week in their desperate and dangerous attempts to meddle in the California election process with voting already underway and just days before Election Day,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement.
“These attacks on our democracy are serious, and the full force of our state is defending our democracy right now.”
The Post reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors on Thursday pursued subpoenas for California state and local election officials as part of an investigation into alleged illegal voting in next week’s midterm elections.
The move was viewed as an expansion of the Trump administration’s effort to demonstrate that thousands of noncitizens are registered on California’s voter rolls. The DOJ said that receiving a subpoena “doesn’t mean you are a target” of a criminal prosecution.
The federal government initially sued California on Oct. 15, more than a week after mail ballots had been sent to all registered voters. The lawsuit demanded that the state set aside 20,000 ballots tied to alleged noncitizens after California declined to sequester them voluntarily.
Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan pushed back, saying they lacked both the legal authority and the necessary mechanisms to freeze mail ballots while voters’ citizenship was verified.
The Trump administration has repeatedly alleged that large numbers of noncitizens have cast ballots in California and other states.
Three alleged noncitizens in Southern California were indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday on election fraud charges. They were among 28 suspects ensnared in what authorities described as the largest voter-fraud operation ever uncovered in the state.
