A federal judge in Southern California on Wednesday refused the Justice Department’s emergency request to make California hold back more than 20,000 mail ballots tied to alleged “likely noncitizens,” and told the government to stop threatening election officials.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter wrote that DOJ has ramped up pressure on local officials, sending letters to every California county and saying in open court that officials who don’t comply could face federal aiding-and-abetting charges. “The court reiterates what it said yesterday: these threats must stop,” he wrote.
DOJ had asked Carter to order ballots from a list it handed Los Angeles County on Oct. 13, with a 48-hour deadline, to be set aside until citizenship could be confirmed. The government filed suit just after that deadline expired.
Carter ruled that the government likely lacks standing or a legal basis to sue, and that federal law against noncitizen voting doesn’t override California’s election procedures. He said the requested relief would likely conflict with the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act’s 90-day bar on systematic removals.
The judge also questioned DOJ’s reliability. Crediting an expert declaration, he noted the government hadn’t disclosed its matching rules or error rates, and said a comparable Nevada claim shrank from 15,903 names to 185, all later confirmed as citizens. He added that DOJ’s months-long delay in suing weakened its emergency claim and that the order would disrupt an election already in progress.
“This Court declines to be a party to such process,” Carter wrote.
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