US judge rejects Justice Department request over 20,000 ballots — The Guardian
US federal judge David Carter denied the Justice Department’s request to require California election authorities to separate the ballots of voters whom Donald Trump’s administration described as non-citizens of the United States. The matter concerned a list of 20,000 people that the department provided to officials in Los Angeles and Sacramento, The Guardian reports.
Justice Department demand
The Justice Department gave election officials 48 hours to review the list. The department said it would sue the state if the ballots of individuals whose citizenship it could not confirm were not separated.
According to the publication, the Justice Department did not disclose details of the methodology used to compile the list. Los Angeles officials found indications during a preliminary review that the list may be inaccurate. On October 15, the department sued California, seeking the separation of ballots and verification of voters’ citizenship.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Court ruling
In his ruling, Carter stressed that the case concerns the right of US citizens to vote in free and fair elections. He also noted that the federal government cannot force state and local authorities to abandon their own constitutional election procedures on the eve of an election.
After Carter scheduled a hearing on the Justice Department’s emergency motion for October 27, the department appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. It said the judge was considering the case too slowly. This week, the appellate court panel ruled against the Justice Department by a two-to-one vote.
California has more than 23 million registered voters, and voting by non-citizens is extremely rare. In July, the US Department of Homeland Security said it had identified up to 190,000 non-citizens on the state’s voter rolls, but did not provide the state with more detailed information before ballots had already been mailed out.
