Appeals Court Presses DOJ on Bid to Set Aside 20,000 California Mail Ballots

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Sunday raised doubts about the Trump administration's emergency request to make California set aside roughly 20,000 mail ballots linked to people the Justice Department suspects are noncitizens, Fox News reported. The hearing, which ran nearly two hours, came as voting for the midterm elections is already well underway in the state.

The judges questioned both the government's legal arguments and whether the appeals court has the authority to step in at this stage, according to Fox News. Judge Mark Bennett said the panel would try to rule as quickly as possible.

The numbers behind the dispute

• Roughly 20,000 ballots: These are the mail-in ballots the Justice Department wants California election officials to hold apart while the eligibility of the people tied to them is reviewed, instead of processing them with other votes.
• Oct. 15: The department filed its lawsuit on this date, about two weeks after California began mailing ballots.
• More than 3 million: The number of people who had already cast ballots statewide, according to figures cited in the litigation.
• More than 500,000: The number of those ballots that came from Los Angeles County.
• Nearly two hours: The length of Sunday's arguments between lawyers for the administration and for California.
• Tuesday: The date of a scheduled hearing before U.S. District Judge David Carter, who has not yet ruled on the department's request.

What the judges asked

Bennett, appointed by President Donald Trump, asked whether the injunction the administration wants could be squared with the Constitution's Elections Clause, which gives state legislatures authority over the times, places and manner of congressional elections, subject to regulation by Congress. He told Justice Department attorney Matthew Donnelly that the request appeared to conflict with a law the California legislature had adopted under that clause, and asked how the court could grant it.

Judge Gabriel Sanchez, appointed by President Joe Biden, asked why the appeals court should get involved when the district court has not ruled and its own hearing is still ahead. Judge Patrick Bumatay, another Trump appointee, put more emphasis on the government's concerns about possible voting by noncitizens and questioned how California handles challenges involving suspected ineligible voters, Fox News reported.

What each side argues

The Justice Department asked the appeals court to act after Carter did not rule by a deadline the department had requested. It argued that hundreds of thousands of California ballots could be tabulated each day while the case is unresolved, and said every day without a ruling risks letting more ballots be processed before the citizenship question is settled. Before the hearing, the administration accused California of a history of mishandling its voter rolls.

California says the appeals court should wait for the lower court. The state also disputes the federal data and says it has strong safeguards against noncitizen voting. In a filing over the weekend, it argued that the federal theory would “turn the Constitution on its head,” and that Washington has no power over election administration in the states unless Congress passes a law on the time, place or manner of elections.

Los Angeles County officials have said a preliminary review of part of the federal list found apparent discrepancies, including people who were born in the United States or were not registered to vote.

Why it matters for California voters

The case bears directly on how ballots already in the mail are handled. If the court ordered the roughly 20,000 ballots set aside, they would be held back from normal processing while eligibility is checked. If the court declines, they would be processed with the rest of the vote as the state's count continues. California's position is that its existing safeguards already keep ineligible people from voting, and the county's early review of the federal list points to errors in that data, according to the officials quoted by Fox News.

The timing adds pressure. With more than 3 million ballots already cast and the count moving each day, both sides say speed matters, though they disagree about which court should act and when.

What happens next

The Ninth Circuit panel has not issued a ruling. Carter is scheduled to hold his own hearing on the Justice Department's request on Tuesday.

Around Prague, based on reporting by Fox News