9th Circuit blocks DOJ plan to quarantine 20,000 California ballots

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 2-1 ruling on Friday that stops the Justice Department from forcing California to set aside approximately 20,000 ballots in the upcoming midterm election.

The federal government has alleged that these ballots belong to individuals who may not be U.S. citizens. The administration demands the state hold the votes and exclude them from the final tally until citizenship is verified. California officials argue the federal list is unreliable and likely includes many eligible citizens.

The appeals panel rejected the federal request, finding no clear error in a previous district court decision. The lower court had already denied the request, warning that the government's actions could disenfranchise voters.

The majority opinion stated that there is no feasible way to identify and segregate the ballots of specific individuals without potentially catastrophic effects on the entire system. Judge Mark J. Bennett, appointed by President Donald Trump, and Judge Gabriel P. Sanchez, appointed by former President Joe Biden, formed the majority. The dissenting opinion was authored by the third judge on the panel.

Elections officials noted that hundreds of thousands of ballots have already been processed. They explained that processed votes are completely anonymized, making it impossible to match them back to the voters who submitted them. Millions of California residents have already cast their votes ahead of Election Day this Tuesday.

The ruling is part of an expansive legal battle between the federal government and California. The Justice Department has not yet responded to requests for comment on the decision. The federal government's scrutiny extends beyond California, with subpoenas issued in Alaska regarding a spoiler-candidate controversy and a similar list of alleged noncitizen voters provided to officials in Washington state.

In a related development earlier Friday, a federal judge in Washington ordered the Trump administration to share the disputed list of names with outside legal groups. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and the UCLA Voting Rights Project will be the first nongovernment organizations to evaluate the merits of the 20,000 names. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra serves as an adviser to the UCLA Voting Rights Project.

These groups sued the Homeland Security Department in early October to prevent it from using federal immigration data to challenge state voter rolls. Their lawsuit cited instances in other states where federal data mistakenly included thousands of citizens. Plaintants argued that the data-matching methods risk disenfranchising naturalized citizens who are legally entitled to vote.

A coalition of unions, including the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, filed a separate suit on Friday. They are asking a federal judge to temporarily block the Justice Department from demanding that local officials stop counting ballots. The unions also seek to stop threats of criminal prosecution against officials who do not comply.

Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, warned that any election official who knowingly processes the ballot of a noncitizen is opening themselves to legal jeopardy. On Thursday, the Associated Press obtained subpoenas issued to Los Angeles County election officials. These subpoenas request documents and communications related to letters sent in July and October by federal officials outlining the allegations about noncitizen voters. They also seek information about efforts to prevent noncitizen votes from being counted.

At least three L.A. County election officials have been asked to appear before a grand jury on Nov. 4, the day after the election. The union lawsuit accuses the Justice Department of issuing threats that could interfere with the ability of workers to process votes. It is unclear whether the department intends to bring criminal charges against anyone, as the agency does not typically subpoena people it regards as targets of a criminal investigation to appear before a grand jury.