US District Judge David O. Carter on Wednesday denied the Justice Department’s request to prevent the disputed ballots from being counted until the voters’ citizenship status can be verified. State officials who argue the government’s list cannot be trusted said that such an order would have effectively disenfranchised thousands of citizens, Bloomberg reported.
“If the Executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger,” wrote Carter, who was appointed by former US president Bill Clinton.
The Justice Department quickly filed a notice of appeal, escalating the fight to the US appeals court in San Francisco.
The case has emerged as an early flashpoint between the federal government and a Democratic-led state in an election in which US President Donald Trump is already casting doubt about the outcome with unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud by non-citizens.
Neither the Justice Department nor the US Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles immediately responded to messages seeking comment.
“No administration can disenfranchise thousands of individuals or disrupt an ongoing election based on highly unreliable claims of noncitizenship,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement.
Following a Tuesday hearing in a packed Los Angeles courtroom, Carter framed his decision as protecting the right to vote as well as the right of the states to oversee federal elections, a practice that is enshrined in the Constitution.
“Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch,” Carter wrote.
“In bringing this lawsuit, the Executive would have this court believe that it reigns as a sole sovereign,” the judge added. “But California and its people are sovereign, too.”
On Monday, a panel of the San Francisco appeals court voted 2-1 to deny the Justice Department’s attempt to skip over Carter to expedite the process. The majority rejected the DOJ’s argument that Carter wasn’t moving fast enough and blamed the government for the tight time-frame.
The administration’s Oct. 15 suit against California and its ongoing effort to pressure other states to segregate similar ballots has triggered a backlash from national Democrats. Groups including the Democratic Senate and House campaign committees filed a federal lawsuit against Trump to try to block the effort, claiming the government’s purported lists of non-citizens are based on “shoddy” data and that Trump is interfering in the elections. The judge in that case will hold a hearing Thursday in Washington, DC.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors called on election officials in Washington State on Monday to segregate ballots cast by more than 400 people who they say appear to be illegally registered to vote.
California officials have argued that state election law is already effective in verifying citizenship status and preventing fraudulent votes.
Shortly after the suit was filed, federal agents across California arrested 11 non-citizens who were charged with crimes including fraudulently registering to vote in US elections, part of a dragnet that the government said bolsters its lawsuit against the most populous state. More than a dozen others were charged.
According to the DOJ’s complaint against California, a federal agent offered state officials an encrypted thumb drive containing the list of suspected non-citizens who were registered to vote in the state. The officials “rejected” the offer, the DOJ said in its lawsuit, demonstrating “a total lack of commitment to work with the federal government to protect the integrity of our elections.”
Los Angeles County said in court filings that officials examined a sample of the DOJ’s list of 20,000 voters and found multiple inaccuracies.
Trump has been pursuing extraordinary legal tactics to assert greater federal control over US elections, testing the boundaries of Washington’s power over how Americans vote as his Republican Party seeks to keep its majority in Congress in next month’s midterms.
While the Constitution largely puts states in charge of elections, Trump has sought to reach into virtually every corner of the voting process as he boosts baseless accusations of widespread voter fraud for his loss in the 2020 election. Trump has pushed to curb mail-in voting, which has been used by tens of millions of Americans including the president.
The case is United States v. California, 26-cv-12025, US District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).