Federal Judge Blocks DOJ Push to Freeze California Ballots

U.S. District Judge David Carter denied the Department of Justice emergency request to halt the processing of mail ballots in California. The federal agency sought to pause the counting of votes for 20,000 individuals it classifies as likely noncitizens. This move would have intervened in state election procedures on the eve of the midterm election.

The legal battle began on October 15 when the DOJ filed its initial lawsuit in California. Since then, the department has expanded its efforts in other states. On Monday, federal prosecutors asked Washington state officials to review a list of 400 registered voters. In Alaska, the DOJ filed a separate suit last week to block the certification of the Senate race if a longshot candidate with a similar name to the incumbent affects the outcome.

In California, the dispute centers on the reliability of the federal government's data. State and local officials argue the DOJ list is flawed. A preliminary analysis by Los Angeles County found that many people on the list do not have active voter registrations. Officials also warned that segregating ballots this close to Election Day is both unlawful and infeasible.

State Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, urged the court to consider the timing of the federal demand. He described the litigation as a precursor to further interference. Bonta wrote that the court must not be drawn into a chilling degradation of democratic values and constitutional principles.

Judge Carter, a Clinton appointee, issued a 26-page ruling Wednesday evening. He rejected the request for a temporary restraining order. Carter noted that the federal government has never before sought to coerce state and local governments to abandon their constitutional election procedures on the eve of an election.

The judge expressed concern that removing votes could cause lasting harm. He wrote that once a vote is segregated, the damage is done. Carter stated that if the executive branch can discount votes based on unproven allegations, the democracy is in danger. He concluded that the court declines to be a party to such a process.

The DOJ argues the situation is urgent because mail ballots are already being processed. Once signatures are verified, ballots are separated from envelopes to protect voter confidentiality. At that point, it is impossible to retrieve a ballot from an ineligible voter. The department claims that votes cast by noncitizens dilute the votes of U.S. citizens.

A dispute over the data remains unresolved. A Los Angeles County analysis of a sample from the DOJ list found that a large portion of those individuals were recorded as U.S.-born. Nicolas Bartell, a senior official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, contested this in recent filings. He stated his office found none of the individuals were U.S.-born, though he acknowledged four might have a claim to citizenship.

Kassra Oskooi, a political scientist at the University of Delaware, served as an expert witness for voting rights groups. He filed a declaration stating he believes the USCIS matching protocol is likely to be unreliable. The judge noted the federal government can still address the issue by indicting individuals for illegally voting as noncitizens. DOJ officials said they charged dozens of people for registering or voting without being U.S. citizens in the last two months.

The Justice Department is expected to appeal Carter's decision. The case could move to the U.S. Supreme Court. For now, California officials will continue processing the ballots for the 20,000 flagged voters.