US appeals court rejects Trump administration’s request over 20,000 ballots — Al Jazeera

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, for the second time in less than a week, rejected the administration of President Donald Trump’s request not to count 20,000 mail-in ballots in California. The decision was made on October 30, less than four days before the November 3 midterm elections, Al Jazeera reports.

The appeals court’s position

A majority of judges concluded that the federal government’s request contradicted the US Constitution and created a risk of disenfranchising people eligible to vote. The ruling states that the consequence of such a step would be not only the segregation of ballots but ultimately their invalidation and the removal of voters from the rolls.

The decision was supported by Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez, appointed respectively by Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden. Judge Patrick Bumatay, who was also appointed by Trump, issued a separate opinion and called the administration’s request justified.

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The lawsuit and doubts about the list

The Trump administration claimed that about 20,000 suspected noncitizens received mail-in ballots to participate in elections in California. On October 15, it filed a lawsuit demanding that these ballots not be counted. State authorities refused to comply with the demand and asked for evidence that the people on the list were indeed foreign nationals. According to the California government, such evidence was not provided.

The accuracy of the Trump administration’s list has already raised doubts. In particular, Nevada authorities said in September that the federal administration had incorrectly identified US citizens as noncitizens and that, according to this statement, not a single name on the list was correct. Last week, the administration brought election-related charges against 28 foreign nationals in California, but some of them told the Los Angeles Times that they had never registered to vote.

Previously, the appeals court had already rejected the administration’s emergency request, noting that lower courts had not been given enough time to consider the case. On Wednesday, a lower court also ruled against the Trump administration, after which it again appealed to the Ninth Circuit.