Appeals Court Keeps 20,000 California Ballots in Count

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied the Trump administration's second request to block the counting of 20,000 mail-in ballots in California. The three-judge panel issued its decision on Friday, allowing the state to proceed with the tabulation of votes in the ongoing general election. The court ruled that the federal government had not demonstrated a clear legal necessity for such an intervention during an active election.

The panel, consisting of two judges appointed by President Trump and one by President Biden, voted 2-1 to uphold the state's authority. The majority opinion stated that the Constitution grants the power to regulate elections to state legislatures and Congress. The judges argued that allowing the executive branch to use federal statutes to dictate California's ballot processing would override the explicit text of the Constitution.

Judges Mark J. Bennett and Gabriel P. Sanchez formed the majority. They wrote that if the federal government believes different procedures are needed for vote-by-mail ballots, it should propose those changes to Congress rather than seeking relief from the courts. The opinion noted that separate federal law requires voter list updates to occur 90 days before an election. The judges cited the district court's findings regarding the reliability of the administration's list of alleged noncitizens as a reason to respect that statutory timeline.

Judge Patrick J. Bumatay, the dissenting voice on the panel, argued that the federal government was seeking a modest remedy. Bumatay wrote that stopping California from mixing ballots from citizens and suspected noncitizens would not cancel any votes. He stated that this pause would simply allow time to verify the eligibility of the individuals in question, characterizing the request as reasonable.

The legal dispute centers on 20,000 specific ballots that the administration alleges belong to noncitizens. The federal government contends that processing these ballots without verification risks counting votes from ineligible voters. The state of California maintains that its established statutory scheme for challenging ballots remains the only valid method for removing ineligible voters until Congress acts otherwise.

Federal prosecutors have also issued criminal grand jury subpoenas to three Los Angeles County election officials. These subpoenas demand that the officials appear in court the day after the election concludes. The simultaneous legal actions place the administration's challenge to the vote count within a wider judicial scrutiny of California's election administration.