9th Circuit Court Blocks Trump Administration Effort to Seize 20,000 California Ballots

Roughly 20,000 mail-in ballots in California will not be held back from counting this election cycle after a federal appeals court ruled against the Trump administration. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision on Monday, denying the government's request to sequester the votes before the November 3 midterm election.

The administration filed its lawsuit against the state on October 15, less than three weeks before the vote. It argued that the ballots were sent to individuals who are likely non-citizens. However, the government has not publicly explained how it compiled the list or determined that the identified voters were ineligible based on their citizenship status.

In a 2-1 decision, the court determined that the administration did not provide lower courts with sufficient time to review the matter. Judge Gabriel Sanchez, writing for the majority, stated that election administration falls under the state's traditional domain according to the US Constitution. He noted that allowing the federal government to dictate these matters would be inviting disorder and confusion for both voters and election officials.

California officials pushed back against the legal challenge, calling it an effort to interfere in the voting process. Lawyers for Secretary of State Shirley Weber filed a court document on October 20 describing the litigation as a reckless political stunt at best. They warned that at worst, the action threatened to disenfranchise thousands of Californians. The case is now moving to a lower court, with a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

This dispute is one of several legal battles involving the Department of Justice, which has sued 30 states and Washington, DC, seeking full access to voter rolls. The department has lost 26 of those cases so far, with no wins recorded. Experts note that non-citizen voting is rare, with a Reuters investigation in July finding only 129 federal charges for illegal voting since 1996. Many of those instances involved administrative errors rather than intent to defraud the system.

The midterm elections will determine which party controls Congress. Republicans currently hold slim majorities in both the House and the Senate, though projections suggest Democrats may gain seats. In the lead-up to the vote, the administration has emphasized the threat of non-citizen voting, charging 28 immigrants in California with illegally voting last week. Reporting from the Los Angeles Times indicated that some of the accused were confused by the charges, maintaining they had never registered to vote.