California Ballots: 9th Circuit Rejects Federal Bid to Hold 20,000 Votes

The 9th United States Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Monday against the Trump administration, denying its request to sequester approximately 20,000 mail-in ballots in California. The decision allows the state to count these votes ahead of the November 3 midterm election.

The administration filed the lawsuit on October 15, less than three weeks before the vote. It argued that the ballots were mailed to individuals who are “likely” non-citizens and therefore ineligible to vote in federal elections. However, the government has not publicly disclosed the methodology used to create the list of voters or determine their citizenship status.

A two-to-one majority on the appellate panel determined that the executive branch did not allow lower courts adequate time to review the matter. Consequently, the higher court declined to intervene in the state’s tabulation process. Judge Gabriel Sanchez, writing for the majority, emphasized that election administration falls squarely within the traditional domain of state legislatures under the US Constitution.

Sanchez warned that pausing the count would create “disorder and confusion for voters and election officials alike.” He noted that the administration was asking a federal court to dictate policy to a state legislature. The dissenting opinion did not detail a separate procedural path but opposed the majority's timeline assessment.

The case remains active in a lower court, where a hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, October 28. The Trump administration sought an expedited decision from the appeals court due to the proximity of the election date. California is a state with a Democratic-led government, while Trump is the Republican leader of the national party.

The midterm elections will determine which party holds power in Congress. The Republican Party currently maintains slim majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Experts project that the Democratic Party is on track to make gains, potentially flipping one or both chambers.

Lawyers for California Secretary of State Shirley Weber challenged the administration's actions in a court filing on October 20. They described the litigation as “a reckless political stunt” at best and a threat to disenfranchise thousands of Californians at worst. Weber’s team framed the lawsuit as an effort to interfere in the voting process.

The Department of Justice has sued 30 states and Washington, DC, seeking complete access to voter rolls containing sensitive personal data. The department has lost 26 of these cases, with opponents arguing that the requests could scare voters and interfere with state administration. The administration has not won any of the 30 cases to date.

A Reuters investigation in July found only 129 cases of noncitizens charged by federal authorities with illegal voting since 1996. Many of those cases involved administrative errors or uncertainty about voting rules rather than fraudulent intent. Last week, the administration charged 28 immigrants in California with illegally voting, though some accused said they never registered to vote.

Immigration agents have been assigned to identify non-citizen voters, sometimes by knocking on doors to inquire about residency status. This follows a history of Trump promoting claims of election fraud to justify greater federal influence over voting. In 2020, he lost the presidential race to Joe Biden and blamed vote “rigging,” a claim that prompted supporters to storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2023, in an effort to halt certification.