US Justice Department loses initial bid to block votes from alleged non-citizens in California

LOS ANGELES – A US judge rejected on Oct 28 a request by the Justice Department to temporarily block California from counting any mail ballots for the Nov 3 midterm elections received from people on a list of more than 20,000 registered voters the Trump administration alleges are likely noncitizens.The decision marks the latest setback for President Donald Trump’s effort to boost the federal government’s role in elections ahead of the midterms, with his Republican Party locked in a tight battle to retain control of both houses of Congress.US District Judge David Carter issued the decision after a hearing on Oct 27 in Los Angeles federal court over the Justice Department’s request for a temporary restraining order barring officials from counting any ballots from the individuals it flagged.“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,” Carter wrote on Oct 28.The judge, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, said the Justice Department’s last-minute request to exclude over 20,000 ballots ran afoul of “longstanding constitutional principles mandating that states have control over their elections”.Carter warned that a ruling in the Trump administration’s favour could create chaos and cause thousands of registered voters to “potentially lose the right that generations of Americans have fought to preserve”.“Eroded trust in our democracy is irreparable,” Carter wrote. “Once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred. If the Executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger.”The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The Justice Department filed the lawsuit on Oct 15, a rare intervention in the voting process weeks before an election.California has said the state’s safeguards against non-citizen voting are robust. It said the Justice Department’s assertions relied on “suspect data” and that complying with its demands would risk disenfranchising eligible voters.California is the most populous US state and a Democratic stronghold. It has more seats in the House of Representatives – 52 – than any other state.Trump has made California a focal point of his sweeping immigration crackdown since returning to the White House, accusing it of undermining public safety through its “sanctuary state” policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.Trump has repeatedly insisted that states are not doing enough to stop voting by non-citizens, which he says is widespread despite multiple studies and state audits showing it is rare.Appeals court rejected emergency requestThe hearing comes after a federal appeals court on Oct 26 rejected an unusual emergency request by the Justice Department asking the appeals court to temporarily block California from counting the ballots before Carter had the chance to rule.The Justice Department did not indicate how many of the more than 20,000 people it flagged in California had actually submitted a mail ballot.Apart from California, the Trump administration has sought to intervene in elections in two states that are home to competitive races.In Alaska, the Justice Department last week asked a judge to prevent certification of election results if the Republican incumbent senator loses by a slim margin, alleging that the presence of another candidate with a similar name on the ballot could confuse voters.Alaska has urged that the case be dismissed, arguing it has taken steps to distinguish the two candidates on the ballot.In Washington state, the Justice Department on Oct 26 sent a letter asking officials not to count any ballots received from 400 voters it said may not be citizens. Washington’s top elections official said the timing of the request indicated it was intended to cast unfounded suspicion on election results.California had 23 million registered voters as at December 2025, while Washington had five million registered voters as at 2024, state records show.Voting rights activists have expressed concern that the federal government's methods for scrutinising state voter lists to identify non-citizen voters risk wrongly flagging naturalised citizens for removal from the rolls. REUTERS