Facts
- U.S. District Judge David Carter on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, rejected the Justice Department’s request to set aside California mail ballots from roughly 20,000 people the government says are not U.S. citizens, CBS News reported. The decision runs 26 pages.
- The Justice Department sued California and Los Angeles County on October 15 after they declined to set aside ballots from people on a federal list and verify citizenship. Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting. The department argued that failing to separate the ballots risks diluting the votes of Americans.
- Carter wrote that the request violates ‘longstanding constitutional principles’ giving states authority over their own elections. He also called the department’s citizenship-verification method ‘vague’ and said he ‘cannot conclude that plaintiffs’ process is credible,’ according to CBS News.
- Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, said the government was not asking to void or cancel any ballots, CBS News reported.
- California officials called the lawsuit a ‘reckless political stunt.’ Los Angeles County lawyers said it would be ‘impossible’ to separate the ballots by the end of the election period and called the department’s data ‘unreliable.’ More than 3.5 million mail ballots have been returned statewide, CBS reported.
- The sample data was disputed. In a 200-record sample, Los Angeles County said more than half of the records matched canceled or inactive registrations, so no ballot was mailed. Of the 200 sampled voters who reported their birthplace, just over 38% said they were born in the U.S., according to the county. A U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services official said the agency’s review found none of the 200 were born in the U.S., and acknowledged about 189 records had ‘minor data discrepancies,’ CBS reported.
- On Monday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 against the department’s emergency appeal, mainly because the district court had not yet ruled. The appeals judges did not decide whether the ballots could be counted, according to the Associated Press.
- CBS News did not say whether the Justice Department will appeal Carter’s ruling. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3.
Quotes
Judge David Carter wrote: “But California and its people are sovereign, too.”
Carter also wrote: “Individuals who have met the requirements of California’s voter registration laws must not be deprived of a core right merely because of unfounded allegations.”
Justice Department lawyers, in court filings before the appeals ruling, wrote: “This is an emergency.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom called the earlier appeals ruling “a welcome speed bump to Trump’s disgusting attacks on the Constitution.”
Source Read CBS News’s report on the ruling here.
Image <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mendocino_County_Official_Election_Ballot_Drop_Box_-April_2023-_Sarah_Stierch_01.jpg” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>Mendocino County Official Election Ballot Drop Box – April 2023 – Sarah Stierch 01 by Missv, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
