9th Circuit Blocks Federal Bid to Remove Disputed California Ballots

The federal government’s legal challenge to California’s midterm voting procedures hit a procedural wall on Friday when a split 9th Circuit panel rejected the Justice Department’s demand to isolate specific ballots. The ruling leaves the state’s current counting methods intact as millions of Californians finalize their votes ahead of Tuesday’s election.

The dispute centers on a list of approximately 20,000 names provided by the administration, which alleges that these individuals are not U.S. citizens. Federal officials want California to set those specific ballots aside pending verification. State officials counter that the list is unreliable and likely includes many legal citizens. A district judge first denied the request on Wednesday, warning that the federal demands risk disenfranchising eligible voters.

Judge Mark J. Bennett, appointed by President Donald Trump, wrote the majority opinion alongside Judge Gabriel P. Sanchez, a Biden appointee. The panel concluded that there is no feasible way to identify and segregate the ballots of specific individuals without causing catastrophic effects on the entire system. They found no clear error in the lower court’s reasoning regarding the logistical barriers to the federal request.

The decision marks the latest development in a multi-front legal battle between the federal government and state election authorities. The administration has issued subpoenas in Alaska regarding a spoiler candidate and provided a similar noncitizen list to officials in Washington state. In California, hundreds of thousands of ballots have already been processed. Elections officials note that these processed votes are anonymized and cannot be matched back to the specific voters who submitted them.

Judge Patrick J. Bumatay, a Trump appointee, dissented from the ruling. He argued that California’s refusal to separate the ballots encourages the violation of federal law. Bumatay stated that the state’s position undermines the federal government’s interest in election integrity and preventing the dilution of lawful votes. He pushed back on the logistical excuses provided by county officials, noting that difficulty alone is not a reason for courts to give up.

On the same day, a federal judge in Washington ordered the administration to share the disputed name list with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and the UCLA Voting Rights Project. This is the first time a nongovernment organization will have access to the data to evaluate its impact on eligible voters. Xavier Becerra, the Democratic candidate for governor, serves as an adviser to the UCLA project.

A coalition of unions, including the A.F.L.-C.I.O., also filed suit on Friday to block the Justice Department from demanding that local officials stop counting ballots. The unions seek to drop threats of criminal prosecution against officials who do not comply. In Los Angeles, at least three county election officials have been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury on November 4, the day after the election.