Supreme Court Appeal: DOJ Challenges California Ballot Rules

Voters in Los Angeles County face a new layer of uncertainty as the U.S. Department of Justice petitions the Supreme Court to intervene in the state’s election administration. The appeal, filed on Monday, arrives just one day before Tuesday’s Election Day. It seeks to halt the processing of ballots for specific registered voters while the federal government verifies their citizenship.

The dispute centers on a list of 20,000 individuals the DOJ classifies as likely noncitizens. The department argues these ballots should not be counted until verification is complete. Federal Judge David Carter, a Clinton appointee, previously described the federal approach as a broad pattern of attempted election interference. A divided Ninth Circuit panel rejected the DOJ’s emergency request on Friday, siding with California and the county election officials.

Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez wrote that granting the federal government’s relief carries a material risk of disenfranchisement. They cited the Purcell principle, which discourages changing election rules on the eve of a vote, and the National Voter Registration Act, which prevents states from systematically removing ineligible voters within 90 days of a federal election. Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented from the decision.

Election officials argue the federal list is unreliable. Data scientists from the University of California Los Angeles Voting Rights Project were granted access to the DOJ list through a separate court order. Their analysis found that 42 percent of the names do not appear on California’s current voter roll. The team also identified naturalized citizens on the list, complicating the federal government’s claim that these are ineligible noncitizens.

The actual number of ballots in dispute may be lower than 20,000. County officials noted that many people on the federal list did not have active registrations and were not mailed ballots. The DOJ has escalated its conflict with California in recent weeks by sending subpoenas to election officials and warning them of potential criminal prosecution for allowing ineligible votes.

A federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order late Friday. The order bars the Trump administration from threatening or coercing election officials to stop processing these ballots. The federal government has appealed that order as well. The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to take up the case or issue a ruling before Tuesday’s vote.