Ninth Circuit Denies DOJ Bid to Segregate California Mail Ballots Ahead of Nov. 3

A federal appeals court on Friday refused to order California to pull aside thousands of mail ballots flagged by the Trump administration as potentially cast by noncitizens, leaving the state’s ballot-counting procedures in place just days before the Nov. 3 election.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied the federal government’s emergency motion for an injunction pending appeal, saying the United States had not shown that such emergency relief was warranted. The administration had asked the courts to require California and Los Angeles County election officials to segregate and temporarily not count vote-by-mail ballots returned by people on a federal list of about 20,000 individuals it identified as “likely noncitizens” until citizenship could be verified.

The practical effect of Friday’s order is immediate: California can continue processing mail ballots under its current rules in the final days before the election.

The Justice Department filed the civil case Oct. 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against the state, Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean C. Logan. Friday’s ruling was the administration’s third loss in a week in its emergency effort to change how the ballots are handled before Election Day.

On Oct. 26, the Ninth Circuit dismissed an earlier emergency appeal for lack of jurisdiction, saying the district court had not been given enough time to rule. On Oct. 28, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter denied the Justice Department’s request for a temporary restraining order, an emergency measure meant to preserve the status quo while a case proceeds. On Friday, the appeals court rejected the administration’s renewed request for an injunction pending appeal.

Carter’s order laid out several reasons for denying emergency relief. He said the federal government’s proposed remedy risked disenfranchising eligible voters and raised concerns under federal election law and broader federalism principles, which generally limit the federal government’s ability to commandeer state election administration at the last minute.

He also questioned the government’s evidence. “Plaintiff’s own description of its methodology in creating the list was vague and raised multiple questions regarding reliability,” Carter wrote. In a separate passage, he underscored how unusual he viewed the request to be: “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.”

Timing has been central to the dispute. California had already mailed ballots on Oct. 1. The federal list arrived in mid-October. By Oct. 21, Los Angeles County had already processed more than 331,000 mail ballots, according to court filings cited by the Ninth Circuit.

California law already makes it illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. The Justice Department’s lawsuit relies on federal law barring noncitizen voting, but state officials argued that the executive branch cannot force them to alter election procedures so close to Election Day. Courts were weighing that request against a longstanding principle that judges should be cautious about changing election rules late in the process, especially when doing so could disrupt election administration or create confusion.

Friday’s order does not decide the underlying legal fight. The courts have not yet resolved whether the federal government’s legal theory is valid or whether its list is accurate enough to justify the relief it sought. But for now, as the appeal continues, California’s existing procedures for processing mail ballots remain in effect.